OPENBARE BIBLIOTHEEK, AMSTERDAM

First post of the year, this time I'd like to present the toilet of the new Amsterdam public library, which itself is of cool design. Moved to its current location in 2007, Openbare Bibliotheek claims to be the largest public library in the whole Europe.

In any case onto the business of toilets. The main toilets are located at the bottom of the building near the entrance of the library. Upon entering the men's lounge area, for conducting business, one can not be noticing the large wall, that separates the toilet from the corridor, which is actually a large piece of canvas made of white knitted rope; in line with the marine surroundings of the library building. With this ingenious design the toilet area manages to have an airy and open atmosphere, not often found in any other toilets than those in outdoors.

The cubicles and urinals continue the light, airy design. The walls of the toilet cubicles are interestingly made of some sort of semi-transparent glass, allowing the artificial light to spread around naturally.

The urinals themselves pose timeless round design, which is a pleasure for any toilet visitors' eye, on condition the urinals are kept clean (Openbare scored well in cleanliness). A small modern touch is a motive of 1:1 size fly at the inner back wall of each urinal, which serves as great target spot to keep the toilet visitor entertained during conducting his business. Unfortunately I don't have any close snap of the fly at my hand, have to take one with proper camera equipment the next time I have the pleasure to visit Openbare Bibliotheek.

The hand dryer is one of those types, where you slide your hands into and which turns wet skin into normal in few seconds. A Toilet Visited gives two dry thumbs to this machine (of course after using it), as it both saves energy and precious toilet visitor's time compared to conventional hand dryers.

Finally "an alphabet mirror" blends in the legitimate library context.