This Portuguese Cemetery's Most Picturesque Feature May Be Its Bathroom

Cemeteries aren't usually known for their bathrooms. Understandably, the architecture of graveyards is typically more focused on the people buried there. But mourners still need facilities, and it would be nice if they weren't disgusting. People may expect to catch a whiff of a ghostly presence in a cemetery, but they certainly don't want to catch a whiff of anything else.

As Dezeen spotted, a Portuguese graveyard just got a new public bathroom that should be the gold (or maybe green) standard for cemetery lavatories. Designed by the local architects at M2.Senos, the cemetery project in Ílhavo, Portugal is literally called "Where Is the Toilet, Please?"

The architects redesigned the structure, which also holds an office for the cemetery’s support staff, to be smaller and less obtrusive than its predecessor. The green tile that lines the whole facade and roof is meant to help it blend more naturally into its surroundings, including both the cemetery and the church associated with it.

Everything about the boxy, geometric design is made to feel like an extension of the rest of the property. The floors are made with the same Portuguese pavement that the sidewalks around it are so that it barely feels like a closed building at all. The marble sinks are designed to mirror the gravestones outside, and the whole building is lit by skylights. There is no exterior door to the atrium that houses the men's and women's bathrooms. Instead, people walk into an open, cutout entranceway at the corner of the building that maintains the structure's unique geometric design.

Not bad for a public bathroom.

[h/t Dezeen]

All images by Nelson Garrido