the vulcan

The Vulcan is an alternative accessible toilet which combines an adjustable height toilet bowl, bidet, support rail and wash basin into one unit.

Responding to a chair design brief, the idea of designing a toilet started off as a sort of joke but quickly became a serious area of investigation as I uncovered how badly accessible bathrooms are implented in the UK. I aimed to make something which is as user friendly as possible, catering to the needs of as many people as I could, while also being simple to install for establishment owners.

The toilet also follows a sleeker form than traditional accessible toilets to try and avoid the usually clinical feeling ones that already exist. However when researching government guidelines and communicating with the owner of the Accessible Toilet Blog, I realised that the balance of form over function must lean more heavily into function as there are so many different people to accomodate with a wide range of disabilities.

The contrasting support rails enable visually impaired people to make them out more clearly. The adjustable height bowl allows for users of different types of wheelchair to all use the toilet safely. The optional bidet also provides a cleaning service to those with limited upper mobility. Lastly, the shelf and sink are the correct spacing and size to be used from the bowl, allowing for the placement of ostomy bags and other items needed by users.

My last goal for this project was to examine the manufacturing of such a toilet, and so designed my CAD models around slip casting techniques and ensured that each element I created, could potentially be manufactured and put into production.