As cities and towns are growing populated, fight for space is intensifying. Considering the importance of space management, two British students have designed a space saving toilet which can be fitted against any compact bathroom.
Gareth Humphreys and Elliott Whiteley, students at the University of Huddersfield said that 'Iota', a toilet with a foldable bowl hardly takes up any space when placed in an upright position (unused). The commode curls up automatically like a 'cute snail' after use.
The foldable loo flushes automatically and uses just two-and-a-half litres of water per flush when compared to six litres for a standard toilet. The flush mechanism gets activated only when the toilet gets back to its upright position. An air-tight seal restricts the waste.
The students said that the space and water efficient toilet is also easy to maintain due to its rimless design.
The duo believes that their concept is best suited for current construction projects as houses get smaller by the day. They claim that the toilet could save 10,000 litres annually per person.
'Ordinary toilets have many problems - one is an excessive use of water which is created by large volumes of water used to force waste around the water trap to leave clean water in the trap,' the students explained. "The current conventional toilet is also very big, thus impacting greatly on small bathrooms. In order to solve these problems, a mechanism has been created to allow the bowl to be folded away," Daily Mail UK reports.
The students have submitted a patent application for their Iota design. Meanwhile, they have also presented their concept to The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Student Design Awards - Re-Invent the Toilet competition. The contest urges students to develop environment friendly toilet designs.
