Maida Hill Toilets

The brief called for a standalone structure that could hold its own in a busy, sometimes pressured urban environment. Anti-social behaviour, heavy footfall and limited working room all shaped the design, along with the need to keep clear sightlines across the square and tie back into existing services. Led by Studio Weave, the scheme wraps two off-the-shelf toilet modules, which are self-contained prefabricated accessible and ambulant units, within a stone cloak that gives the building a civic identity rather than the feel of a standard kit installation. The façade needed to resist pedestrian impact, weather and persistent misuse while remaining straightforward to repair or replace in parts.

We developed a freestanding cladding system formed from large-format stone panels joined with stainless steel pins set into the mortar joints, creating a locked assembly that carries its own weight and wind loads without relying on the toilet modules inside. The façade combines red granite with green granite, both reclaimed from local sites and tested to ensure suitability for reuse, alongside new Lundhs larvikite concentrated at corners where the stresses are highest. At the openings, pre-tensioned stone beams span above the doors and rest on slender stone columns. The reciprocating wall system allowed the stone slabs, only 80 millimetres thick, to span far further than a traditional masonry wall without reinforcement or wind posts. It forms the first built example of a new low-carbon facade typology that is quicker to erect, stronger than brickwork and avoids the need for movement joints.

The structure is now a more deliberate part of the square, its stone skin lending weight and permanence to a place that has long lacked both, while keeping maintenance practical for the council.