Enhance the Pissing Experience and Save Water Too!

The advent of home urinals means more water conservation and less piss on the floor. It makes perfect sense; why shouldn't every bathroom have one? But according to a Times article, the fixture has leaped straight from commercial men's rooms into luxury master suites, bypassing mass-market budgets for the moment. High-end manufacturers and one twisted porcelain artist from San Francisco have begun releasing a steady flow of new residential urinal designs over the past few years.

Fetishism abounds: You can choose to aim into a teaspoon (from Philip Watts), or you can revel in polluting a giant mutant orchid or lily (Clark Sorensen). Don't forget the boldly perverse Kisses! urinal from Bathroom Mania (not necessarily for the home, but impossible to overlook in any urinal review). The teardrop-shaped, waterless McDry from Duravit is apparently so sublime that you might just be tempted to cuddle with it (see how the green building cosultant Eric Cadora succumbed, above right, as pictured in the Times). Meanwhile, the sleekest design belongs to Phillipe Stark for Duravit.

The central design problem for urinals is simple. “When you go at a flat wall there’s lots of splash," said Shane Judd, product manager of Kohler’s fixtures group, in an interview with the Times. Therefore you need something with a curved, receding basin. For New Yorkers in cramped apartments, the best option might be a compact model such as the corner-hugging Oblic from Villeroy & Boch (pictured at top, far right). Outlandishly priced at a cool $7531, it nonethelss has a splash-proof funnel shape and a novel sliding cover. More conventional models are available for less than $500.

We also must mention our all-time favorite ridiculous chamberpot, the $3000 Kohler Purist Hatbox toilet (left), which is said to "epitomize high fashion in the home."