Being a first time parent is a constant barrage of new and unexpected experiences. Some, like an infant’s first smile, are pure magic. Others, like sleep disruption, are nightmares. While spending time with my 4-month-old nephew last week, I asked my sister what the most surprising thing as a new parent has been. Her answer might come as a shock to some. She didn’t talk about the unexpected wonder of discovering who her son is, or the unanticipated frustrations of getting the little guy to sit still long enough to eat. Instead, my sister, who is able-bodied, and lives with her partner, child, and dog, in an apartment in central Toronto, talked about washrooms.
My sister lives within walking distance of numerous parks, ravines, trails, and other green spaces. Despite these advantages, she told me how restricted she is in her ability to leave her apartment while on maternity leave, all because she can’t depend on having access to public washrooms, both for her newborn and for herself as her body recovers from childbirth. This inability to take a stroll and break up the sometimes monotonous routine of caring for a small infant is wreaking major havoc on her postpartum wellbeing. Unfortunately, she is far from alone. Her experience is one most Torontonians can relate to. Like affordable housing, live music venues, and greasy spoons, public washrooms have been disappearing across the city over the last forty years. It’s time for us to wake up and face the facts. Toronto the Good has a potty problem.
Stories like my sister’s are all too common. From the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Toronto Public Space Space Committee (TPSC), a volunteer-led advocacy group, heard from many folks about barriers faced when accessing public washrooms in the city. We heard about many people’s inability to move around the city, such as older adults and people with chronic illnesses, due to the lack of washrooms. People told us how they had to plan their routes in advance or even limit how much water they drink when outdoors for fear of having no place to go. We saw how washroom closures disproportionately impacted unhoused community members, when the few spaces available to them, such as libraries and community centres, were closed.
Public washrooms are an essential, yet often overlooked component of the urban fabric, integral to the health, dignity, and well-being of city inhabitants. In Toronto, the public washroom network has steadily eroded over several decades – a decline that speaks to a broader trend of disinvestment in public infrastructure. While once considered a basic urban amenity, washroom access has become increasingly privatized as the city relies on private businesses like fast-food outlets and coffee shops to provide this essential service. Unfortunately, this means access is conditional, restricted to paying customers, and is often discriminatory. This lack of accessible public washrooms has far-reaching public health and equity implications.
The TPSC has taken on the challenge of advocating for public washrooms. Taking inspiration from the 2021 Gotta Go report, TPSC members have been meeting regularly and engaging with members of Toronto’s city council to move forward a city-wide public washroom strategy.
To complement this advocacy work and bring more attention to this issue, we are launching TO the Loo! Toronto Toilet Design Challenge, a design idea competition that invites participants from around the world to propose ideas for inclusive, innovative public washrooms in Toronto. Our goal is to elevate the public washroom as a collective asset, and show how this can be done artfully and playfully.
TO the Loo! Toronto Toilet Design Challenge calls on designers and other creative thinkers to develop a network of public washrooms for Toronto’s South Parkdale neighbourhood. This traditionally underserved neighbourhood is home to a culturally and economically diverse population that is facing immense pressures with development and population growth. These pressures, in combination with being the location of several major transit routes, make this neighbourhood a great site for the competition.
Designs should be flexible enough to be sited across the city, from downtown to suburbs, and include a multi-user washroom hub and a single-user toilet. Because everyone needs to go sometime, submissions should incorporate several key principles:
- Spatial Justice – Fair and equitable distribution of washrooms within the public realm.
- Accessibility – Designed to accommodate a range of users with different needs.
- Gender and Culture – Designed to be flexible for different cultural practices and inclusive of all gender representations.
- Harm Reduction – Designed to feel safe for everyone and to reduce risk of death from overdoses, avoiding the use of defensive or hostile design that aims to make space inaccessible, unusable, or uncomfortable for particular user groups
- Sustainability – Make use of technology and novel ideas to reduce the environmental footprint, and provide future-proof maintenance solutions.
- Art and Community– Employ art and design as tools to reduce the negative perception of public washrooms and to make them feel appealing and distinctive.
“The intention with these design principles is to push back on the idea that public washrooms must be unpleasant or will lead to anti-social behaviours,” says Car Martin, TPSC member and founder of Cyan Station, an architecture and design studio sponsoring the competition. “Public washrooms can be beautiful community assets, while also meeting a universal basic human need.”
Competition entries will be reviewed by a diverse panel of active and well-respected jurors in the community, providing an opportunity for networking and exposure for these unique ideas. The top three competition winners will receive a cash award and have their work published in Spacing Magazine. Selected entries will also be showcased in a public exhibition at 401 Richmond in Toronto in July 2025.
Registration is open now! Please visit www.publicspace.ca/competition for more details. Don’t miss your chance to shape the future of public loos!
*This article was co-written with other members of the Toronto Public Space Committee — Holli Butrimas, Cara Chellew, Ramsey Leung, Car Martin, Raphaella Valeri, Allison Yan, and Jessie Ye.
Image courtesy of Toronto Public Space Committee
