At the very least, they’re the best for selfies.
You probably already know that Ōtautahi is getting a lot of great PR at the moment. It feels like every other week there’s a headline about the great energy in the Garden City, propelled by the masses of people moving from the north to take advantage of the cheaper housing, the thriving hospitality industry, the progressive music scene and the borderline suspect levels of so-called “happiness”. All great reasons to live here, sure, but nobody is talking about the single biggest drawcard of the city: its phenomenally good toilets.
With the quake rebuild ushering in a new dawn of accessible, inclusive and inviting public spaces in the CBD, this generosity has also extended to the humble water closet. Head to Riverside Market, The Welder or The Court Theatre and you’ll encounter a long line-up of colourful, all-gender loos, each with gap-free doors and their own sink and mirror – a room of one’s own, every time. For mirror selfies alone, Lillies is great for a lime green wiggly mirror moment, as is the Isaac Theatre Royal if you prefer your dunnies dripping in gold leaf.
All these heavy-hitters, and yet it is the loos at Tūranga (Christchurch Central Library) which tower easily over the rest. With a brood of unisex, mobility access bogs found on each of the five floors of the award-winning building, the toilets are all unified by their bold, coast-to-coast canary-coloured tiling. It’s a Kusama room without all the dots. It’s the yellow brick road without borders. Remember when you would hold a buttercup flower up to your chin as a kid and marvel in the warm glow? It’s that, but your whole body.
A highly scientific call-out on social media revealed that I am far from the only Tūranga loo lover. “One of the most aesthetic bathrooms in the 03,” said one proud Cantabrian. “Best toilets in NZ,” said another. “It looks so good in there.” The sunny hues even inspired The Spinoff’s own Liv Sisson to stage semi-regular floral photoshoots in the toilet “because it was such a pretty background.” Another visitor from the North Island fondly recalled a “happy 10 minutes” there in 2022. “I remember thinking I wanted to go back for more.”
Thankfully visitors can leave Tūranga not just with a clutch of books, but an awe-inspiring mirror selfie that they have snapped without interruption or shame. While it takes some deft angling to keep the toilet and other related ephemera out of frame, enthusiasts said the statement tiles offer “plausible deniability” to those not “in the know”. Others said they look forward to it after a hard day’s graft on the library floor. “There really is something about those loos,” said one local. “The selfie is a little reward after being a nerd in a quiet room.”
With my phone filling with solicited loo snaps, I contacted Architectus, who designed Tūranga (and the toilets). Director Carsten Auer said that bold colours were always a major consideration in terms of both wayfinding and the cultural narrative of the library. Working closely with mana whenua representatives Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Matapopore, many of the colourful flourishes on each floor (lilac, green, red) were inspired by the artworks around the library, and can be found everywhere from meeting rooms, to the lift shaft, to the soft furnishings.
When it came to picking the toilet colour, yellow wasn’t a shade that had been used yet in the rest of the building, but it also brought plenty of its own positives. “We really wanted to use bright colour in the public bathrooms, just to overcome all the associations that we all have with public toilets with cleanliness, and also the sense of safety,” said Auer. “That warm, bright yellow was something that we felt was quite soothing, quite calming, and at the same time very positive and bright. It directly counteracts the ideas we have around public toilets.”
The colour choice was collaborative, and Auer noted the library team also had a hand in the selection. Central Library manager Chris Hay said that the choice of yellow tile had two key ideas behind it from their perspective. The first was to help people easily identify where the toilets were on each floor – there’s no missing the loud yellow block. The second was to do something a bit surprising for a toilet – and a library. “The intention was to use the bright colour to bring some fun and vibrancy to what is often a very utilitarian space,” he said.
That feeling of surprise – and “an immediate feeling of joy” – is one remembered vividly by local baker Anna Worthington, also known as Cakes By Anna, when she first encountered the loos back in 2018. “The shade of yellow is very warm and it’s definitely a very calming place to be/pee,” she said. “I would always take a selfie in there before leaving – probably just an opportunity to linger a bit longer.” Somewhat of an expert in this particular field, she noted the best selfies often occurred when dressed in “Suzy Cato-esque” primary colours.
Beyond influencing her wardrobe, Worthington has also incorporated the sunny spirit of the Tūranga toilets into her recent renovations, with floor to ceiling yellow tiles now lining her own bathroom. “There is no doubt the Tūranga loos influenced this decision,” she said. People often comment on the likeness on social media, and visitors seem to delight in the IRL experience too. “They often come out of the loo and say what a nice experience it was,” she said. “I think we underestimate how colour can affect our mood and wellbeing.”
With Tūranga and its mighty loos turning seven years old this month, Auer says the bright yellow toilets are the single thing from his decades-long career that he still gets the most feedback on. “It is surprising how often I get comments on this one thing specifically,” he laughs. “No one’s ever said to me ‘oh, great atrium’ it’s always just ‘I love those toilets’.” And while he hasn’t encountered the Tūranga mirror selfie phenomenon before in his feed, he is chuffed to hear that it continues to inspire people, including in their own home renovations, to this day.
“Sometimes it’s nice to focus on the smaller things in life that give people joy,” he said. “I’ve actually just done my own bathroom – didn’t go for the yellow, but I’ve got very strong green.”
