Marunouchi House Toilet, a public restroom of the “marunouchi HOUSE” restaurant floor in the Shin-Marunouchi Building, Tokyo, proposes an innovative use of color to blur the boundaries between gender and challenge persistent color stereotyping.

By utilizing yellow and green, adjacent colors at the center of the rainbow — a symbol of gender diversity — the design softens the divide associated with conventional codes of red and blue. It acknowledges that gender is not binary, and that, for some, it’s also not necessarily on a spectrum.

The project is a renovation of 65-square-meter restrooms. Each one was covered from ceiling to floor with white, textured tiles made in Tajimi, Japan’s center of ceramic tile production. Interior structural corners and right angles were rounded to keep the tiling continuous and seamless, creating a sleek futuristic aesthetic that emphasizes cleanliness.

Colored light evenly permeates the spaces to embrace visitors, allowing them to experience the hues with their entire bodies. Long, custom-made stainless-steel washbasins subtly reflect the light and become focal points, their welcoming curves and rounded structures inviting visitors to partake in hand washing like a new, communa and calming restroom ritual.

The LED lighting is indirect and fixtures are hidden. Motion-sensored faucets, soap dispensers and dryers are concealed within the basins, leaving nothing to inhibit the flow of color over the smooth lines of the restrooms. From outside, the colors illuminate the entrance glass doors in their entirety. Once inside, the sensation of being saturated by the color of light transforms all elements of the restroom environment into something extraordinary and otherworldly. It becomes an unusual portal to a space-age experience that leaves a powerful lasting impression on the visitor.