At Rice U., a Prefabricated Bathroom Saves Time and Money

Bathroom pods are being delivered to a construction site at Rice U. as a self-contained unit, which might cut costs and waste. (Images courtesy of Rice U., Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company, and Hopkins Architects)

Bathrooms attract their share of attention in the design world, especially in shelter magazines, but the bathrooms in new residential buildings at Rice University are something different altogether. The McMurtry & Duncan Colleges will feature “bathroom pods,” prefabricated toilet, shower, and sink units designed by the project’s architects, Hopkins Architects and Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company.

The main advantages of the bathroom pods are efficiency and reduction of waste. A news release from Rice says that subcontractors typically order more materials than they need when constructing utilities like bathrooms; at the end of the construction, there is a big pile of waste at the job site. With the 7-foot-by-7-foot bathroom pods, the shell of which is made from glass-reinforced plastic, materials and waste are concentrated at the manufacturing sites in England and New Jersey. Because the finished product is delivered essentially complete — even the mirrors are already installed — there is less need to hire specialists to construct the bathroom areas. Just hook up the plumbing and electrical, and you’re done.

The pods may have a future in a range of residential and commercial projects. For now, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is interested in them — but less as a loo and more as a design innovation. The pods are part of the museum’s latest exhibition, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.”