The thigmophiliac composting stove

This investigation into the author’s master’s thesis in architecture starts from an observation that our current ways of coping with waste sustain an obliviousness and feed a lack of responsibility towards the waste we produce and the way it is treated. Moving towards more effective ecological living patterns, but deviating from a strong adherence to technology, raises the question of how architecture can trigger a shift in mindsets on how we deal with waste. While ecological thinking and acting in the field of architecture are often focused on materials and their cycles of re-use and durability, the waste this research consciously takes interest in is of a more uncanny kind. Human bodily waste is the waste exchanged by mediation of the architectural element of the toilet. Instead of focusing on a fast and total removal of waste from our home, can architecture apply principles of care for waste as a vibrant matter? Aspiring to evoke ecological awareness, a low-tech toilet design is scrutinized in this article for its potential to perform care from a thigmophiliac point of view, as well as for producing compost.