Eco Design

Why the composting Boxa Loo is more than 'just a posh pit toilet'

These ready-for-assembly ablution blocks tick all the eco-issue boxes and look stylish too

16 February 2020 - 00:02 By Ufrieda Ho
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Composting toilets never looked this good, and this Boxa Loo unit was assembled in a record five days.
Composting toilets never looked this good, and this Boxa Loo unit was assembled in a record five days.
Image: Supplied

If you think artist Marcel Duchamp was the only person obsessed with toilets, then you haven't met Anthony Lewis. Lewis is one half of the duo behind a new building concept of ready-for-assembly block structures, including ablution blocks.

These toilets are 100% off the grid, modular and scalable. They tick the right boxes for sustainability, utility, consideration for socio-economic and environmental impact and they're pretty good-looking loos too.

Unlike the French artist though, Lewis doesn't want their toilets in a museum. But like Duchamp's urinal (called Fountain and made in 1917) that caused a stir in art circles, he'd like their toilets to be a talking point, to shake things up and to change our minds about ... well, our crap (actual and in our heads).

It's because we need better solutions to waste and consumption cycles in a time of climate change, finite natural resources and a growing aspirational population that is making bigger demands on our planet.

Lewis and his business partner, architect Frank Böhm, founded Boxa last year and by year-end they were able to put up their first demonstration build - Boxa Loo at Victoria Yards in Lorenztville in Joburg east.

Boxa Loo's great for the little ones too.
Boxa Loo's great for the little ones too.
Image: Supplied

At Victoria Yards' First Sunday event of the year, Lewis says there was a mix of excitement for the novelty, design and innovation of the compost toilets for some. For others it was "just a posh pit toilet".

"Some people preferred to walk back to other toilets while others were in love with the concept," says Lewis.

He understands the reaction, he says, because improved living standards for many still means a flush loo in the house.

Compost toilets were used at the Glastonbury festival in the UK for the first time last year. It's also the technology that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is backing for its projects.

"There's a swish of air when you sit on the loo because of the convection current from the wind masts that keep the air circulating and that's about the only immediate difference you notice," says Lewis. He beams as he shows off the toilet block that was built in a record five days - with no water, no cement and no waste.

"It's like giant Lego blocks, everything comes prefabricated, with almost everything you need for assembly, so we could also use local labour and we got in a crane to lift parts of the roof in place," Lewis says.

The polymer concrete blocks are made with components that include recycled plastics, resin and reclaimed bits. It has excellent insulation and thermal regulating properties.

The loos have skylights for natural light in the day and sensor lights charged by solar panels on the roof

The loos have skylights for natural light in the day and sensor lights charged by solar panels on the roof. Harvested water fills a bladder that's stored under the structure and is filtered to be used for hand washing with biodegradable soap.

The entire unit is slightly suspended off the ground, supported by a steel pile foundation system. With no old-style foundations, it's as stable and safe as it gets but short circuits clunky permit rules. The roof and floor slabs are made from Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) sourced from sustainable forests.

At the centre of the block are two children's loos and two adult loos on either side. The block accommodates wheelchair users and allows for nappy changing.

Lewis flips up the lid on the loo and invites a look down the chute - no odour and little to see, really, bar some squares of toilet paper. Cleaning entails a daily handful of lime thrown down the loo and, if necessary, to take a toilet brush with lime and water to the bowl.

Compost toilets are about fine chemical balance, decomposition and time. The compost toilet part of the build is by Enviro Loo, Boxa's partners in this build.

Sarah La Trobe from Enviro Loo says the design of the toilets separate solids from liquids then works with air circulation, lime and natural decomposition. After about 18 months a full tank of waste is reduced to about 5% of its original volume.

"It's a low-maintenance system that requires raking every three months and removal of the waste at the end," she says.

Enviro Loo has been working with schools in Limpopo to make compost toilets a solution to pit latrines

Their company has been working with schools in Limpopo to make compost toilets a solution to pit latrines. The deaths of several school children in school pit toilets remains our national shame.

Toilets became Lewis's passion project when, after years of working across Africa for his UK-based property company, he was struck by how sanitation remains at the heart of inequality and the problem of the hygiene and disease burden.

So he returned to South Africa and decided that his finance and corporate background needed some purpose. When he connected with Böhm they had a convergence of ideals and passions that led to Boxa being born.

Böhm built his own home 10 years ago in a modular, off-the-grid approach, connecting different pods.

"Back then people were saying I was crazy or asking why do we need this.
I realised when I left my big commercial firm 15 years ago that we were regurgitating the same ideas to clients and following the same standards and norms we were taught a long time ago without thinking about new possibilities of modular building and the possibilities from new technologies," he says.

He believes people have become disconnected with buildings and are forgetting that the structures we live, work, play (and poop) in are part of the "network of all our systems".

The next steps for Boxa are to build a multifunctional learning space out of the same materials and along the same off-the-grid pod-style principles for Victoria Yards' Changemaker Centre in April. This build is being sponsored by Lewis' old property company, JLL.

By the end of the year Boxa wants to be able to complete their "Loo, Learn, Live" project with a residential build in Hout Bay. These will showcase their concept and help build a client base they imagine can be everything from a security hut, to a yoga studio, a hostel or a luxury lodge.

It's about making spaces liveable again - beautiful even - and making them kinder to the earth. It's ticking boxes, thinking out of the box and for Boxa it's starting with one poop at a time.


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