Arja Renell

Death to the flushing toilet Arja Renell

Water is needed to grow food and keep ecosystems thriving, not to flush down toilets. We also need to realise that our waste is not waste but a valuable resource.  

The current sanitation infrastructure needs to be critically reassessed in the context of global freshwater shortages and broken nutrient flows, which cause serious ecosystem damage globally. By questioning the so far indisputable position of the water-based sanitation system, this book aims to inspire architects and professionals to start looking for alternative solutions to better serve the world we inhabit today.  

The topics of sustainable sanitation are explored through expert articles, which provide in-depth knowledge such as on the history of sanitation, nutrient flows and circular waste economies. This book accompanies The Dry Collective s exhibition Huussi Imagining the Future History of Sanitation , curated by Arja Renell and presented by Archinfo in the Pavilion of Finland at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.  

Adjusting our ways of living in the face of climate change is taking place now, not in the future. In the future, the flushing toilet as we know it will be history.