Since 2014, the Hanoi-based H&P Architects studio has completed three versions of the Toigetation project, providing sanitary facilities and washing areas for disadvantaged communities in Vietnam. By designing affordable, modular and flexible projects, the architects are helping to improve the living conditions of these rural populations. Through its foundation, Architecture and Social Responsibility, H&P Architects undertakes field missions to meet local communities in order to better understand their daily needs and to be able to provide made-to-measure architectural responses.

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Ethel Halimi

‘Ensuring environmental sustainability’, in particular by improving sanitation facilities and access to drinking water, is one of the eight ‘Millennium Development Goals’ set by the United Nations in 2015. In Vietnam, inequalities regarding access to water and sanitation facilities persist between rural and urban areas. According to an article published by UNICEF Vietnam in October 2023, 16 million people are deprived of restrooms, and more than 7 million children in schools are affected by the lack of drinking water and sanitation facilities. If we add to this list the water shortages caused by the droughts affecting certain communities in the country, these infrastructure shortcomings are a public health issue that adversely affects the health and development of the most isolated.

Since 2014, architecture firm H&P has developed three versions of its Toigetation project, a contraction of ‘toilets’ and ‘vegetation’, in order to solve this fundamental sanitation problem affecting rural areas in Vietnam in particular. The system consists of a modular space containing toilets and a washing area. ‘Toigetation was designed with three objectives in mind: rapid construction, low cost and easy replication’, say the architects. In its first version, this structure, located in the small municipality of Bảo Lạc (situated in the north of the country, some fifty kilometres from the Chinese border), gave the 485 pupils of the Sơn Lập school access to these facilities.

Two years later, Toigetation 2 was built to meet the needs of more than 300 pupils at Ta Ma primary school in the commune of Ðiện Biên province. With its surface area of 42 m² (while the 2014 project was 9 m² in size) of sanitary fittings, Toigetation 2 is part of a more holistic approach to the standard sanitation service conducted in partnership with Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and Ministry of Health.

Toigetation 2 was built using local labour and resources: resting on concrete foundations, the bamboo post-and-beam structure allows for a small footprint. Adjacent to the structure, the vegetation regulates the indoor climate and acts as a protective façade. The complex is equipped with a system for collecting and filtering rainwater and wastewater, which is then used for cleaning and watering. Solar panels provide the electricity needed for lighting.

A third version of the Toigetation project is completed in 2019. Toigetation 3 provides public toilets for the town of Đông Triều, located in the province of Quảng Ninh, around 100 kilometres east of the capital. Unlike the first two projects, this one takes the form of three massive blocks of different sizes, arranged to conceal the interior spaces from view. A framework made of fence panels and old steel tubes provides shade for the entire facility.

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“Thanks to the simplicity of its implementation, the Toigetation system can be reproduced in just three weeks, anywhere in the country, for the sum of 3,000 USD. This project aims to give power to its users, by enhancing the local ecological balance and access to decent sanitary facilities in Vietnam’, conclude the architects.

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Toigetation, H&P Architects, Bảo Lạc commune, Cao Bằng province, Vietnam

Programme: Construction of a sanitary area (toilets and washing area) in a primary school
Architects: H&P Architects
Project team: Doan Thanh Ha, Tran Ngoc Phuong, Luc Van Tu, Chu Kim Thinh, Nguyen Van Manh, Patricia Erimescu, Vo Quynh Thu, Nguyen Thi Xuyen, Chu Van Dong, Nguyen Hai Hue, Hoang Huu Nam
Architectural consultant: Dr Nguyen Tri Thanh
Surface area: 9 m²
Delivery date: 2014

 

Toigetation 2, H&P Architects, Ta Ma commune, Ðiện Biên province, Vietnam

Programme: Construction of a sanitary area (toilets and washing area) in a primary school
Client: Ðiện Biên Provincial Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
Sponsor: UNICEF Vietnam
Architects: H&P Architects
Project team: Doan Thanh Ha & Tran Ngoc Phuong (project managers), Chu Kim Thinh, Dao Bich Lien, Nguyen Hai Hue, Nguyen Van Manh, Nguyen Van Thinh (architects)
Surface area: 42 sq.m
Delivery date: June 2016

 

Toigetation 3, H&P Architects, Đông Triều commune, Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam

Programme: Construction of public toilets in the Mạo Khê district
Architects: H&P Architects
Delivery date: June 2019

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To find out about other water-related projects, pick up our new issue, ‘L’eau, bien commun’, published in September 2024 and still available from our online shop.