The thigmophiliac composting stove

Abstract

This investigation into the author’s master’s thesis in architecture starts from an observation that our current ways of coping with waste sustain an obliviousness and feed a lack of responsibility towards the waste we produce and the way it is treated. Moving towards more effective ecological living patterns, but deviating from a strong adherence to technology, raises the question of how architecture can trigger a shift in mindsets on how we deal with waste. While ecological thinking and acting in the field of architecture are often focused on materials and their cycles of re-use and durability, the waste this research consciously takes interest in is of a more uncanny kind. Human bodily waste is the waste exchanged by mediation of the architectural element of the toilet. Instead of focusing on a fast and total removal of waste from our home, can architecture apply principles of care for waste as a vibrant matter? Aspiring to evoke ecological awareness, a low-tech toilet design is scrutinized in this article for its potential to perform care from a thigmophiliac point of view, as well as for producing compost.