Haewoojae (), also known as Mr. Toilet House, is a museum and cultural center dedicated to toilets located in
Suwon
Suwon (; ) is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population of 1.2 million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan, tho ...
, South Korea. It was built in 2007 as the residence of former mayor of Suwon Shim Jae-Deok. Shim was known for his campaigning to improve the quality of toilets in Suwon. After his death in 2009, the building reopened in 2010 as a cultural center and museum related to toilets. Haewoojae displays historical and modern toilets as well as exhibitions on toilets' role in culture, as well as ways to improve existing toilet systems.
History
Construction on Haewoojae began in May 2007 in preparation of the inaugural meeting of the World Toilet Association. On November 11 the same year, the construction was completed. The building was initially used as a residence for Shim Jae-Deok, the former mayor of Suwon who worked to improve the quality of toilets in Suwon. The World Toilet Association stated that they were building Haewoojae ahead of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
' declaration of 2008 as the international year of hygiene. During that time, the house was open to the public for rent for $50,000 US dollars a night.
Shim died on January 14, 2009; his funeral was held at Haewoojae. In July 2009, his family donated Haewoojae to Suwon's government, which announced plans to renovate it and convert into a toilet-themed park for residents. On August 5, 2010, it was announced that Haewoojae's remodeling would be finished around late September the same year. On September 30, 2010, Haewoojae was reopened to the public, this time as a toilet-related cultural exhibition facility. Haewoojae would later on also open a toilet themed outdoors park outside of it in July 4, 2012.
Museum layout
There are four bathrooms, two above ground floors and a basement at Haewoojae. The combined area of the two floors is 420 square meters. Furthermore, there are specialized mirrors on the first floor bathroom of Haewoojae which can turn opaque on the first floor, and translucent bathroom walls on the second floor, and the toilets all have a speaker which plays music. The toilets in Haewoojae all employ water-saving systems which reduce water usage by around 70% compared to commercial toilets.
On the first floor of the museum, toilets and toilet-related objects starting from the 1950s to the present are exhibited, while the second floor contains information about how toilets play a role in culture as well as how to improve toilet systems. Furthermore, the museum contains toilets from historical eras of South Korea, particularly the
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...
and
Silla
Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...
eras. There are also depictions of people defecating and urinating throughout the museum. Surrounding the museum, there is an outdoors park containing historical examples of
outhouses
An outhouse — known variously across the English-speaking world otherwise as bog, dunny, long-drop, or privy — is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket ...
and
pig toilet
A pig toilet ( ''zhūjuànmáokēng'', sometimes called a "pig sty latrine") is a simple type of dry toilet consisting of an outhouse mounted over a pigsty, with a chute or hole connecting the two. The pigs consume the feces of the users of the ...
s, as well as sculptures of people defecating.
See also
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Sulabh International Museum of Toilets
The Sulabh International Museum of Toilets in Delhi is run by the Sulabh International, dedicated to the global history of sanitation and toilets. According to ''Time'' magazine, the museum is one of the weirdest museumsToilet History Museum