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EOOS is a design studio led by founders and partners Martin Bergmann, Gernot Bohmann and Harald Gründl. Beyond its furniture and product design, the studio aims to drive forward the development of social and sustainable design projects. EOOS collaborated with LAUFEN on save!, a urine-separation toilet that received a Life Enhancer of the Year 2020 award by Wallpaper* magazine.
EOOS is a Vienna-based international design studio with expertise in furniture, product and social design. Since its establishment in 1995, Martin Bergmann, Gernot Bohmann and Harald Gründl have developed an extensive client portfolio including Alessi, Artelano, Bite Beauty, bulthaup, Carl Hansen & Søn, DatesWeiser, Dedon, Division Twelve, Duravit, FSB, Fürstenberg, Gaggenau, Geiger, Herman Miller, Hussl, Keilhauer, Lamy, Lektri.co, Matteograssi, Montina, Moroso, Nuki, Poltrona Frau, Red Bull, Schock, Walter Knoll, Zumtobel and LAUFEN.
The year 2010 marked the beginning of a new chapter for the studio. Inspired by Victor Papanek’s argument that design should be a socially and ecologically responsible discipline, proposing that designers dedicate 10% of their time to solving real-world problems, EOOS turned its attention to the global sanitation crisis affecting billions worldwide.
Through global collaborations with universities and research institutes, social enterprises and NGOs – including the Gates Foundation and the International Red Cross – EOOS works to improve the water, sanitation and hygiene needs of people around the world. Using Open Design and applying the principles of Circular Design, EOOS demonstrates the discipline’s transformative power to implement real and meaningful change.
The studio’s social design projects include the SafeTap, ZUV and Urine Trap, the technology behind the save! urine-separation toilet developed in collaboration with LAUFEN.
EOOS has received numerous international design awards and represented Austria at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2016) and at the Milan Design Triennial (2019). The Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna dedicated solo exhibitions to the studio in 2015 and 2019.
In 2019, LAUFEN partnered with EOOS and EAWAG (the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) to develop a pioneering urine-separation toilet that is indistinguishable from any other sophisticated WC. save! was conceived as an innovative solution to make the infrastructure around wastewater treatment fit for the modern world, protecting the world’s rivers and oceans. LAUFEN save! is the first gravity flushed urine-diverting toilet to meet the latest industry standards of conventional toilets.
The innovation underpinning save! is Urine Trap technology, which passively separates urine from solids and greywater. Designed by EOOS, the system effectively directs urine towards a concealed outlet using only surface tension. The urine siphon has an odour trap and cannot be viewed by the user.
Rimless and wall-mounted, save!’s elegant aesthetic integrates seamlessly into the contemporary bathroom. The urine-separation technology is hidden in the optimally-shaped bowl and requires no change to user behaviour, though men are required to urinate sitting down.
By separating different streams, save! is part of a new system that seeks to sustainably process wastewater, reduce pollutants and extract usable resources. Urine in particular is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are essential ingredients in the production of fertiliser.
LAUFEN and EOOS share a commitment to developing innovative, environmentally-friendly solutions that better the world we live in. The save! toilet was part of a circular water saving and sanitary project at Harrison's Primary School, providing the students with access to clean and safe sanitation.
