Matakana Toilets

It's no accident that New Zealand is home to some of the world's most spectacular public restrooms. Designed by Matakana lad Steffan de Haan, the Matakana Toilets are a bold artistic take on an otherwise ordinary public facility that pays homage to the significance of boat building to the region.

These toilets were first proposed in 2002, and a competition for the final design saw dozens of entries. De Haan, who at that time was in his first year at Auckland University, produced the winning design. It features arched rooms that resemble the hulls of boats, and sculptural representations of two faces. It took seven years for the artistic toilets to be built (in part because of a change in location), but they were opened to the public in 2009.