In 1998 the Kawakawa Community Board was looking to upgrade 40-year-old toilet facilities in the central township, and Hundertwasser offered a solution from his design palate. To Hundertwasser, a toilet is very special because you meditate in a toilet. Like a church. "The similarity is not so far fetched" - he says. His concept was adopted and, with the artist personally lending a hand in construction supervision, including the provision of materials from his own studio. Hundertwasser was in fact more involved in construction than he was in the world-renown Hundertwasser House apartments project in Vienna.
Hundertwasser Kawakawa toilet In consultation with the Bay of Islands College, students prepared ceramic tiles which have been used throughout the building. The bricks used came from a former Bank of New Zealand building, and both young and old from the local community volunteered services to the construction process. Frederick Hundertwasser's toilet was opened in a dawn ceremony. The finished product is a work of art, from the grass roof, to gold balls, ceramic tiles, bottle glass windows, mosaic tiling, copper handwork, cobblestone flooring, individual sculptures and a living tree integrated into the design structure.
I have been here and the artwork is marvellous. It had to be designed by a man though a woman would have put more toilets in here. I seem to remember there were only two ladies toilets, not good when you are on a bus trip with over 50 people all waiting to go to the loo.
@onewing Ha - must've been a long queue - and made even slower by people like us taking images! They are such a lovely work of art aren't they? Nice image Carole!
