U’R in
Are people open to using their urine as a material? What are the basic elements that a toilet should have in order for it to cover a user's needs? Do men also pee sitting down?
UR'IN is a fictional organization initiated by designer Louise Permiin in collaboration with social designer Elisa Otáñez. In public activations, UR'IN aims to approach the taboo of urine and public peeing in an open way by asking questions through a set of interactive elements. People can vote their preference in categories involving urine; for example openness to using a public unisex toilet, using their own urine as a material to create energy or harvest food and learning about the pesticides in our body that our urine releases.
Also, women were invited to imagine and test a prototype for different positions when peeing, like hovering over the toilet bowl. Likewise, participants could represent their ideal toilet space through drawings or descriptions, which allowed a space for proposals. This gave the designers input to imagine the boundaries of our culture regarding urine and peeing in public, thus giving an idea of where the present and future of urine lies. Altogether, this activation’s purpose is to overturn misconceptions around urine and peeing to finally start acknowledging the potential in it.
