For many of us who work in an office, our idea of a public restroom is a plain room with commercial bathroom partitions, slippery floors, dirty sinks and perpetually empty paper towel dispensers. It isn’t always like that though, as the following seeks to demonstrate.

What constitutes a nice public bathroom? A clean environment, plenty of paper, toilets that flush themselves and a nice fragrance in the air? What would the best bathroom need to have to win the title? All the above, plus heated toilet seats, art on the walls, great views and nice decoration.

First up are the public bathrooms in the Daimaru Department Store in Tokyo. As you would expect in Japan, these bathrooms are full of technology. Sure, you still have commercial bathroom partitions, tiled floors and hand-basins, but you also have interior decoration and toilets that flush themselves.

Dubbed “techno-toilets,” they wash themselves, and you, with an extendable wand, have a heated seat, and best of all, has an optional audio track to disguise the noises. Switch on the Otohime, or “sound princess,” to play recordings of running brooks or ocean waves to cover up the noises made while inside.

Something completely different is the Graben Toilets by Wilhelm Beetz in Vienna. Beetz was an architect who was given the unenviable task of cleaning up the public facilities in the city in the late 19^th century. The result is an underground bathroom that is decorated with marble tiles, pretty patterns, wood paneled booths, individual sinks and brass fixtures and fittings.

Beetz took the standard commercial bathroom partitions and made them elegant in a way only a European could. The surroundings are sumptuous, and scrupulously clean.

The next outstanding public facilities find us in Germany. The underground bathrooms at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin to be precise. The German government spent $1 million in 2007 to renovate them and brought in designer Tobias Wille to do the work. The result is a clean, contemporary space that uses black, white, glass, steel and stone to create a modern convenience that is actually a nice place to be.

Finally, we do actually have a “best bathroom” entry in our very own Wisconsin. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan to be precise. The locals say that there are as many people here to visit the bathrooms as there are to visit the center.

Six local artists were given a completely free rein to design and fit bathrooms that demonstrated the connection between art and industry. The result is six very different bathrooms with not a commercial bathroom partition in sight. Each is tiled and decorated in a unique style and are in use, and on display all year round. If you want to view the bathrooms of the opposite sex, as long as you’re escorted, and they aren’t being used, you can!

Bathrooms don’t have to be dull places. While they aren’t designed to be somewhere we want to spend too much of our day, there’s nothing wrong with making them a nice place to be. A little design inspiration and a little cash can go a long way.

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