Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom by Nobuaki Miyashita is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Silver A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Competition Category.
SilverInterior· 2025
Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom
Client: Life Housing Co., Ltd.,
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Interior Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #171577The Design
About Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom
Tokumitsu Taanto is a public restroom interior located in Hakusan, Ishikawa, Japan. The room covers 25 square meters and has a ceiling height of 2.90 meters. More than 3,000 gold leaf tiles cover the walls. Each tile is a 200 millimeter square porcelain tile with a textured surface, finished with hand-applied Kanazawa gold leaf. The tiles are set against a dark background, and indirect lighting is arranged to reveal the reflective quality of the gold. The design applies a traditional Japanese craft to a contemporary public space.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
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Grand Interview
Your innovative integration of over 3,000 Kanazawa gold leaf tiles in the Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom creates a stunning dialogue between tradition and modernity - could you share the journey that led to this groundbreaking fusion of UNESCO-listed craftsmanship with contemporary spatial design?
The journey began with a desire to reinterpret Kanazawa’s UNESCO-listed gold leaf craftsmanship beyond ornamentation. We sought to express its spiritual luminosity in a minimal, contemporary architectural language. By integrating over 3,000 hand-applied gold leaf tiles, the space becomes a dialogue between the past and present—honoring Kaga’s heritage while reimagining it through light, proportion, and silence.
The interplay of light and shadow appears central to the Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom's immersive experience - how did your detailed studies of light angles and reflectivity inform the final lighting design that brings such mesmerizing dimensionality to the gold leaf surfaces?
We conducted detailed experiments analyzing the reflectivity and diffusion of light on gold surfaces at varying angles. The goal was not brightness, but depth. By adjusting the lighting to 35°–40°, we achieved an ever-shifting glow that reveals the gold’s micro-texture and subtle shadow gradients. The resulting atmosphere changes like a living organism as one moves through the space.
What inspired you to challenge conventional public restroom design by transforming the Tokumitsu Taanto Public Restroom into an artistic sanctuary that celebrates Kaga culture through its golden enclosure?
Public restrooms are often treated as purely functional spaces, but I wanted to redefine them as places of aesthetic and cultural reflection. Tokumitsu Taanto is not a restroom—it is a micro-architecture that celebrates Kaga’s artisanal pride. The golden enclosure creates a sanctuary-like experience, transforming a mundane routine into a contemplative encounter with Japanese craftsmanship.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The Golden Restroom at Hakusan Gateway Tokumitsu TaanTo is a one-of-a-kind interior space featuring Kanazawa gold leaf, a traditional Japanese craft. Over 3,000 gold leaf tiles adorn the walls, shifting in appearance with changing light. Set against a dark backdrop, indirect lighting accentuates the golden glow, creating a surreal experience akin to a luminous chamber floating in space.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Room area: 25 square meters Ceiling height: 2.90m
- Tags
- interior design, gold leaf, luxury restroom, Kanazawa, cultural heritage, immersive experience
- Production Technology
- The gold leaf tiles are crafted using the UNESCO-listed Hand-Applied Gold Leaf technique. Each 200mm square porcelain tile features textured surfaces enhanced by meticulously applied gold leaf, creating depth and richness. The lighting design is strategically planned to maximize gold’s reflective qualities, enveloping the space in a serene, ethereal glow.
- Design Challenge
- The greatest challenge was crafting a space that maximizes the texture of gold leaf while maintaining a refined and immersive ambiance. Detailed studies of light angles and reflectivity were conducted to create a lighting design that showcases gold at its most mesmerizing.
- Research
- English: Type of Research: Interior design study Objective: Exploring the potential of traditional craftsmanship in spatial design Methodology: Analysis of gold leaf’s light reflection properties, lighting simulations Data Collection: Reflectivity measurements, visitor sensory evaluations Results: Creation of an immersive design using gold leaf Impact: Introducing new applications for Japanese traditional crafts
- Inspiration
- English: The core inspiration of this project is to transform the beauty of Kanazawa gold leaf, a symbol of Kaga culture, into a contemporary spatial experience. The golden enclosure is designed to immerse visitors in the profound artistry of traditional craftsmanship. The interplay of gold's sheen and shadows evolves with time, creating a mesmerizing atmosphere.
- Project Duration
- The project is located in Hakusan, Ishikawa, Japan, and was completed in April 2021.
- Operation Flow
- The restroom offers visitors an immersive experience enveloped in golden radiance. Indirect lighting dynamically alters the expression of the gold leaf, transforming the space into a living artwork of light and shadow. Users feel as if they have stepped into an art installation, elevating a routine activity into an extraordinary encounter.
- Patents
- N/A
- Team Members
- N/A
- Image Credits
- Image #1,#2,#3,#4,#5: Photographer Nobuaki Miyashita, 2021
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