Made of cylindrical weather-resistant steel plate panels, this toilet is brought together under a large circular awning below the elevated railway tracks at Sasazuka Station on the Keio Line. Its creator, architect Ms. Junko Kobayashi, is a consummate professional involved in the development of numerous toilet facilities, including those at Tokyo Tower and Narita International Airport. In conceptualizing this toilet project, she thoroughly surveyed the frequency of toilet use, covering factors including time of day, user gender, generation and occupation (assumed) to determine just how comfortable it could be to use. It was from such a perspective that I was taught to see public toilets as an important urban infrastructure and to learn the responsibility of creating urban assets.

The design made things extremely difficult, as within the site there are elevated piers and foundations. The old waterway of Tamagawa Waterworks runs below the frontage road, and with restrictions on the loading capacity only passenger cars can be accommodated. A critical condition was to make the construction lightweight, so cranes or other heavy equipment could not be used. For that reason, Ms. Kobayashi chose to employ steel panels for a lightweight structure consisting of two steel plates welded in channels. A company with shipbuilding technology fabricated steel plate panels that, as they rust, enhance their weather resistance. Scaffolding was erected at the site and the parts were hoisted by winch to complete installation and welding.