by Nadia Promi

Created on: May 29, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Do you think it's worth traveling for five, or even more, hours, only to see a public toilet?
It definitely is worthwhile because this is not an ordinary toilet!
Actually, it is unique in the world, and it is the only public work of Friedrich Hundertwasser in the Southern hemisphere. If you haven't had a chance to see any of his 'ecological' buildings in other parts of the world, this would be an ideal opportunity: travel to New Zealand's Northland, to the small town of Kawakawa in the Bay of Islands.

Friedrich Hundertwasser, born Austrian as Friedrich Stowasser, is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. When he first came to New Zealand he was already an important international figure whose works had been exhibited worldwide. In 1975 he bought a property on the Waikino peninsula, east from Kawakawa, and in 1986 he got New Zealand citizenship. Living between his New Zealand farm and European, American or Asian metropolises, he enjoyed the paradise of his gardens and woods in the vicinity of the Pacific ocean. When in 1997 the local District Council decided to reconstruct the old public toilet in Kawakawa, Friedrich Hundertwasser offered his ideas and they were accepted. He himself was supervising the construction, which had to have an ecological dimension, as all his works had. All plants and trees that had to be removed from the site because of the construction works, later were placed back on the roof of the toilets. No surprise, the toilets have put the small and rather dull Northland town on the international tourist route.

You most probably wouldn't find Kawakawa an interesting place to make a stopover but the toilet itself, in the center of the town, is fascinating. It can't be missed because the pillars at the entrance and the ceramics of the outside walls are glistening with bright colors: intensive red, yellow, green, purple, enhanced by golden spheres and reflecting the "organic" architecture of curved lines.

One would never say it was a toilet if not known. It is important to stress that the idea of Hundertwasser was not to expose the work of art only, but to create a (very real) public toilet that will be functional and an artistic work too. After a more than three hours long drive from Auckland, or even further, you will probably need to use the toilet and could, at the same time, enjoy the fabulous, colorful sights of its interior. The daylight is filtered through the wall panels and windows made of old wine bottles. In the middle of the toilet there is a tree growing. "There are window rights and tree tenants", the eccentric Hundertwasser would say. He had a mystical approach to art and it may seem just fair that his last architectural work was the public toilets in Kawakawa.

Friedrich Hundertwasser died from heart attack, on his way to Europe in February 2000, only several months after the toilets were opened.

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