Award-winning innovation is rarely associated with restrooms, but considering the long lack of innovation with respect to the loo, it should come as no surprise that there is a better way to design toilets.

Announced on World Toilet Day (yes, it exists), the Wellbeing Toilet designed by three Central Saint Martin’s graduate students responds to the inefficiency and long-term health risks of traditional seats, generally forcing people to sit at 90 degrees. Its shape and structure were “commended for improving human health by reducing the risk of intestinal cancer and haemorrhoids and diagnosing medical conditions.” The design borrows from both Eastern and Western design strategies, combining them with well-being considerations.

A panel of industry experts selected this winner on other criteria as well, including its sustainability (reduction of water usage) and advanced technology (urine analysis to reveal medical conditions), but the primary considerations were related to its simple and effective (com)mode of addressing a basic and necessary human function. The toilet has changed so little over the last few hundred years since the first flushable was introduced, but the time has come to rethink it, even if it all of this potty talk will inevitably elicit a few giggles here and there.

The post Ergonomic Toilet: Shifting Users from Sitting to Squatting first appeared on Gajitz.

A pair of young inventors in Hong Kong has developed a doorknob-replacing device to change the way we approach hygiene, their prototype successfully eliminating 99.8% of germs on contact using metal and light – a perfect solution for that perpetually tricky question of how best to exit a public restroom.

Sun Ming (Simon) Wong and 18-year-old King Pong (Michael) Li built their creation out of relatively straightforward materials: a cheap embedded ultraviolet LED light coupled with bacteria-killing titanium oxide.Even more ingenious, no external power source is required – the kinetic energy of the door’s motion is converted by a power-generating gearbox into the requisite juice to turn on the handle. Set inside a clear glass container bracketed by metal, the light activates the titanium oxide and turns on the germ-assassinating machine as you use it, after which it turns back off automatically. While similar processes have been used for a long time to disinfect surfaces, this solution is cheap and can be deployed on a massive scale for everyday use.

“Titanium dioxide kills bacteria best when lit by ultraviolet (UV) light, says Simon. UV wavelengths are among those in sunlight. But indoor handles and any used at night would have little natural exposure to UV light. So the teens are lighting their door handle from within. Now, every part of the coated handle will see UV light. To make sure the interior light reaches the coated surface, the teens fashioned their door handle from a long cylinder of clear glass. Each end fits into a bracket. Inside one of the brackets is a strong light-emitting diode (LED). It emits UV light. (Transmitting the light from one end of the handle to the other is similar to the transmission of light through a fiber-optic cable. In this case, though, the glass handle is fat rather than super-thin.)”

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Form meets function in this sleek water-saving faucet design that uses a system of turbines to create variegated flows of different kinds, each also reducing the water output at any given time. This so-called Swirl Faucet was designed Simin Qiu, a student at London’s Royal College of Art.

The design is meant to be both visually pleasing but also quite functional – a button-touch interface lets you change settings quickly and easily.

Meanwhile, each configuration creates a slightly different lattice-like pattern reminiscent of DNA or fractals – definitely well-suited to a semi-public space like a kitchen but equally useful in a bathroom.

An attractive alternative to traditional spouts, the sleek look was the product of a great deal of sketching and design development – it reduces water usage by 15% or more as currently conceived but could also be further optimized for additional savings.

The post Swirl Faucet: Helical Patterns Look Sweet & Save Water first appeared on Gajitz.