If you should happen to be travelling to South Korea, you absolutely must visit it... it’s the theme park dedicated to toilet culture!
The Toilet Culture Park is located outside Sim Jae-duck’s house (better known as Mr. Toilet House! - See TidBits 85!), former mayor of the city of Suwon. And he would have been very happy with this initiative, since he was a strong promoter during his lifetime of the diffusion of the use of the toilet throughout the country. Indeed, Mr. Toilet House actively worked for this purpose in Korea and in the entire world in support of the important World Toilet Organization (see Perini Journal n.32 and also PJL TidBits n.28) of which he was president in 2007.
Many communication channels have spoken about the museum-park, defining it - rightly so and not just ironically - the ideal place to contemplate and to reflect! It is surely an architectural attraction (editor’s note: Sim Jae-duck’s house is in the shape of a toilet) but it is also interesting from a cultural point of view because it contains a great many objects related to the bathroom and to hygiene. Here you can find everything from restroom signs from every part of the world to the representations of toilets typical of different historical times and places. A series of bronze statues are disseminated throughout the park, perhaps inspired by Rodin’s more famous “The Thinker”, representing and illustrating this delicate and often embarrassing aspect… But the museum has a cultural aim in that it analyzes above all the social aspects and the health and hygiene issues connected to the toilet, underscoring how, in the history of man, the use of the toilet has had a protagonist’s role in the fight against disease and epidemics.
Proceeds from this particular museum will be used to build new public bathrooms in the country, just like the beloved Mr. Toilet House would have wanted.
See the BBC report.