Hasta La Ideas

Led by faculty members John Takamura and Dosun Shin, students at Arizona State U.’s College of Design have come up with a “transgenerational toilet design concept” called Go With the Flo. The unusual-looking loo won the Breaking the Rules Silver Award at the Northwest Design Invitational, meeting five “outstanding design” criteria: “Appropriate aesthetics, design innovation, ecological responsibility and market and user benefits.”

So what does it do, exactly?

The Flo toilet is an ergonomic, sustainable design concept for baby boomers that functions like a squat toilet. Designers maintain that using the Flo toilet is akin to yoga – by building and strengthening abdominal and back muscles. Only one-half to one gallon of water is used for flushing and The Flo reuses water from hand washing. To flush water from the tanks to the toilet, the Flo employs an electromagnetic ball valve. Go With the Flo also is free of mechanical parts. The toilet is fully self-sustaining and independent of electric power.

More info on the Flo is available here.

(more…)