This month kicks off the London Design Festival and we can’t help but wonder if toilet design will be as hot of a topic as it’s been at other shows this year. At the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Chicago in February, TOTO's Neorest WX smart bidet toilet was all the rage upon making it’s US debut, after previously winning the Red Dot and iF international awards for design excellence. At the New York Design Festival in May, the NYCxDesign Award for Health+Wellness went to OLI's Easy Move wall hung toilet system. The loo, which is mounted on a support frame behind a tempered glass plate, can be raised or lowered up to 150mm by remote control, making it a boon to people with reduced mobility. And during Milan Design Week that same month, the 150-year-old American bath furnishings brand Kohler, debuted the Formations 02 smart toilet made in collaboration with British artist and designer, Dr. Samuel Ross MBE, founder of industrial design studio SR_A. The loo’s unveiling at the end of a riotous series of electric orange pipes was perhaps the buzziest toilet introduction since Alexander Cummings’ s-shaped pipe modification in 1775. And it’s not just industry insiders who’ve taken notice. Last month, The Financial Times published an article by journalist Helen Barrett about the race for the world’s quietest toilet: “All Quiet on the Cistern Front: In the high-tech, high-ticket world beyond-bog-standard loos, the race is on for the soundless flush.”

But for all the buzz-generating bells and whistles that are put into smart toilets today—motion sensors, heated seats, water jets, and air dryers—we can’t help but be enamored with the more minimalist ceramic toilets made by Paris-based Trone. Their boundary pushing Callipgye design relies less on computerised technology and more on artisanal craftsmanship. Each one is handmade in Europe with a slip poured into a mold, then dried for a week before one of 8 enamel colours is applied and fired in a kiln at 1270°C for 24 hours. The seat, made from ash wood that’s sourced from the Arras forest outside of Paris, is varnished to match (as do the ceramic flush plates). But it’s really the sculptural tiered shape—inspired by ancient amphitheater seating in Greece—that makes this loo so intriguing. Apparently, the very name is a reference to the ancient Greek callipygian, which means having beautifully shaped buttocks! With such wit, it’s no wonder the company’s founder, Hugo Volpei, threw himself into launching a toilet company in 2018 after a trip to the loo at London’s Sketch restaurant left him disappointed to find a typical “white and boring” toilet inside the iconic egg-shaped pods. Having attended the EDHEC Business School in Paris and studied at Parson’s School of Design in New York, he realised there was a niche in the market for something chicer, that could invigorate a room we all use every day.  

Well, we say mission accomplished and designers agree!  This powder room in Gdynia, Poland, right, is a favorite example. Designer Aleksandra Sowa of Asid Studio created a cosy envelope with plaster walls from Detale Cph and terra cotta floor tiles from Fornace Brioni, that would have been jarred by a standard white loo. “I chose the toilet from Trone because it’s unusual shape and beautiful colour scheme. I was looking for something that would stand out and complement the floor tiles,” she says. Since the Callipgye is a wall hung toilet, it was necessary to build-in a support frame, which Sowa concealed behind custom cabinetry that also houses laundry machines in this space. It’s an important consideration if you’re planning on a wall-hung toilet. According to Trone, you’ll need about 15cm of wall depth to account for the support frame. But fear not if that means cutting into your floorplan—the toilet’s raised position off the floor coupled with its inverted profile can create an illusion of space, so perhaps it evens out. And of course, it’s much easier to clean around a suspended loo than a floor-mounted one, so that’s surely a win, too!

Photos: Courtesy Trone; Oni Studio, courtesy Aleksandra Sowa