It’s an unfortunate fact of outdoor concerts: The number of toilets is always in inverse proportion to the number of drunk asses who need to pee. So people -- and by people, we mean shameless dudes -- make a urinal out of the local flora.
Here to rescue Mother Nature from full bladders everywhere is AANDEBOOM, a Dutch design studio that has invented either the world’s cleverest or the world’s grossest makeshift restroom. P-Tree is a rotation molded recycled plastic receptacle that straps onto a tree trunk, transforming your resident oak into the backdrop for a public (very public) urinal.
P-Tree AANDEBOOM from AANDEBOOM on Vimeo.
Once you get past the ick factor -- and really, is it any grosser than a porta potty? -- it’s actually pretty smart. Guys pee on trees. P-Tree acknowledges the inevitable and adds a layer of protection so that said trees don’t take a direct hit. (Or a slightly less direct hit. Because let’s be honest: Aim has never been the drunk man’s strong suit). The best part: P-Tree hooks up to a central sewerage system or a tank, which means it actually flushes. P-Tree 1, porta potty, 0. The only downside we can see -- and the reason this one's an "Almost Genius" -- is that there's no shielding on either side of the urinal. Hence the significant number of members visible in the other images we received of the design. (At first we thought these were the fingers of guys unzipping. We were wrong.)
The Roskilde festival in Denmark, a sort of Coachella of the North Sea, installed 50 neon orange P-Trees this year. The festival’s “problem with public peeing was significantly reduced,” designers Rogier Martens and Sam van Veluw say. Which makes us wonder if P-Tree could actually catch on and become as much a staple of outdoor concerts as ganja balls and Wavy Gravy. We reckon so, at least in Europe, where using a urinal strapped to a tree does not, apparently, constitute “public peeing.” But in Puritanical America? Concert producers would never allow it. Sorry, guys. Find a bush.
COMMENTARY: European's have a completely different orientation when it comes to things like sex, smoking pot, and now taking a pee right out in the open. What a great idea. I bet the parks and recreation department will like them too. What a great idea. The Dutch lead the way. Let's thank those dudes at AANDEBOOM. Now sau AANDEBOOM!! five times in a row as fast as you can.
Courtesy of an article dated July 8, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
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