Since 2008, Australia has been a cautious bystander to the worldwide recession, and the city of Perth in Western Australia has pressed ahead with several major building projects, including a new 45-story office tower and plans for a six-star, 500-room luxury hotel in the city’s outskirts. Construction has continued in the public sector as well, with projects including a $600,000 face-lift on a nearly 700-square-foot public restroom alongside an art gallery and library. The new restroom, which opened in October 2011 and was dubbed the “Loouvre,” was designed by Perth-based Coniglio Ainsworth Architects as part of a city-sponsored program to renew public spaces in the aging Perth Cultural Centre precinct.

The city’s initial proposal called for simply refurbishing the run-down and often-vandalized public toilets, which are located in a building that houses stairs and elevators for an underground parking garage. But the architects saw an opportunity to rethink the restrooms and to connect with the cultural precinct and art gallery nearby. “Although it is just a toilet project, its setting deserved a better and more rigorous design response,” says Andrew Ainsworth, the project’s director.