october-2009

VIENNA TOILETS
and you can see it now – right through to the
fabric of how toilets are kept.”
Indeed. And so my journey into Vienna’s loos
starts in Karlsplatz – one of the city’s busiest
underground stations and transport hubs. Here
the ultimate novelty WC awaits, and you’re
likely to hear it before you see it (then smell
it as the heady waft of cleaning fl uid beckons
commuters for a grade-A service!).
The Opera Toilet is themed around an ornate
Viennese concert hall. The stunning backdrop
welcomes you as you enter, and loud opera
classics from the likes of Mozart pleasure your
ears as you relieve yourself.
Adjacent to the Opera Toilet lies another
themed loo, the Bar Toilet – this time modelled
on a late-night bar with retro beer bottles
encased in the walls and a beaten-up piano
in the men’s room. This statement to toilet
nirvana is a strange place to take a leak, but by
no means as controversial as when it opened
in 2006. Then the urinals were shaped in the
style of women’s lips, reminiscent of the Rolling
Stones logo. When the more conservative
among Viennese women glimpsed the fact
these female lips were to be the recipient of
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THE URINALS
WERE SHAPED IN
THE STYLE OF
WOMEN’S LIPS
men’s splashes of wee the public outcry was
huge. The urinals were removed and auctioned
off on eBay for the sum of €3,000.
But perhaps when you consider the amount
of new art going up around the city, it’s no
surprise that Vienna’s public toilets are so
individual. In the passageways of Karlsplatz
underground station you’ll fi nd some in the
shape of wall pieces by artist Ken Lum. The
installation, entitled Pi, consists of a series
of digital fi gures revealing statistical insights
into Viennese society, such as the amount of
schnitzel eaten in the city in a day, or the number
of people who have fallen in love (a fi gure that
constantly fl uctuates up and down).
“Art in underground stations is vital,” says
Ricky. “Art is something you usually have to
pay to see in Vienna, but free art brings colour
to stations and people’s lives. The enamel
surfaces of the station walls make them perfect
for murals.” One classic mural is artist Oswald
Oberhuber’s Permanent – Graffi ti at Landstrasse
station. And at other stations art takes the form
of mosaics – Schottentor station (U2 line)
features a piece by Barbara Krobath that hangs
above the platform, made up of 40,000 pieces
of Bisazza glass.
But back to toilets, and at one of the world’s
fi rst eco-housing complexes is one of Vienna’s
true WC masterpieces. Built in the 1980s long
before going green was fashionable (or even
de rigueur), the Hundertwasserhaus housing
estate is named after artist Friedensreich
Hundertwasser who designed the building to
be able to capture and recycle rainwater. It
features undulating fl oors, a grass roof, and
large trees growing from inside the rooms, with
limbs extending out the windows.
But it’s in the basement that the real shrine
to water starts. Hundertwasser’s heavily
signposted Toilet of Modern Art looks like
it could come straight out of Antoni Gaudí’s
quirky book of design. Enter through turnstiles
to fi nd offset asymmetrical panelled tiles on
the fl oors and walls, and smashed mirrors
twinkling over the basins fi lled with pieces of
mosaic and glass at odd angles.