Kenilworth Designer Dunny Competition

“Dunny” is Australian slang for toilet, especially an outhouse or other outdoor toilets. The Kenilworth community of Queensland, in partnership with the Sunshine Coast Council, recently invited entries in the Kenilworth ‘Designer Dunny’ Ideas Competition. A new public toilet will be built on Isaac Moore Park and the residents of Kenilworth were looking for exciting ideas for an iconic building that would become a draw-card for visitors to the picturesque rural town. Due to seasonal flooding of the adjacent Mary River, the facility had to be located at least 3.6 metres above existing ground level. At the same time the facility had to be accessible to people in wheelchairs, which required a 1 in 14 slope ramp to be provided. With an almost 50m long ramp therefore required the challenge was to design something eye-catching, functional and responsive to the beautiful natural setting.

My design “The Changing Spiral” was one of 12 proposals shortlisted from a field of 185 entries. The design is a light filled timber-slat cylinder, accessed by a spiral ramp that touches the ground lightly.

The Dunny has been located to the northwest of the existing pavilion, close enough for easy access without obstructing views to the north. The central structure of the Dunny is a cylinder that houses the toilets, rainwater and AES tanks. This open timber slat structure is the linchpin from which the disabled access ramp is suspended. The access requirements for the ramp are used not as a constraint but as the generator of an elegant spiral which is based on the Golden Mean or Phi ratio. Phi is a ratio that has been observed occurring in nature from the arrangement of flower petals in plants to the structure of spiral galaxies. Its physical and mathematical beauty has been used in art and architecture from the design of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece to more recent architectural and artistic works.  

The mainly open timber slat design uses a locally available material in a way that is suitable for the local climate, with the open timber slat design allowing sunlight and breeze to flow through and obscure glass screens providing privacy where required. The steep metal roof drains to an internal downpipe, which in turn is connected to a rainwater collection tank located at ground level. 

The central cylinder is a constant: its form and material unchanging other than weathering of the timber itself over time. The walls of the spiral ramp, on the other hand, will be changeable: cladding panels that can be replaced or mixed and matched as decided by the residents of Kenilworth. For instance, the panels can be transplantable green wall pods during one season and timber planks or metal during another. Special occasions (Remembrance Day, New Year’s Eve…) can be commemorated by relevant info-panels (fixed or digital). In this way the Dunny becomes more than a functional sculpture. It is an active mirror of the Kenilworth community, reflecting their choices and their values.

The jury citation for The Changing Spiral had this to say about the proposal: “This is a modern classical approach to the brief. The access ramp floats above the green recreational ground plane via suspension cables from the translucent slatted building core that sits at the journeys destination towards the centre of the spiral. The ramp would have the characteristics of a mountain valley suspension bridge giving the user a sense of adventure as they begin their hike to the la-la. During the day the truncated cylindrical ‘tank like’ outline with its whimsical red ribbon spiral ramp would present as an eye catching sculptural form for passing motorists and park users at the threshold to the township of Kenilworth. At night time, with appropriate lighting it would appear as a glowing ‘lantern like’ structure heralding the gateway to the town and collective creative character of the Kenilworth peoples. The spaces between the slatted timber carcass are large enough apertures for the view and vistas to be continually observed as one accesses the facility. These transparent spatial tectonics also allows filtered views of treescape and landscape through the toilet pavilion to the surroundings on the other side.”