Design | Phosphorescence in Glass and Ceramic Glazing Lights Up Deb Wallace’s Bathroom

How many times in the middle of the night have you stumbled in the dark seeking the bathroom and, with particular urgency, the toilet? Your home, which in the daylight is familiar and safe, has suddenly become a black labyrinth filled with a gauntlet of furniture just waiting to bruise you horribly. Your screams of pain echo through your home, terrifying your loved ones and annoying your pets.

We admit: This problem could probably be solved with a simple nightlight, but that’s boring. University of South Australia Industrial Design grad Deb Wallace came up with a more stylish idea with a bathroom design she calls “Inspired by the Aurora Australis.” The aurora australis, of course, is a natural light display in the southern sky caused by collisions of charged particles in the blah blah blah it’s bright neon green. To bring this color to bathroom fixtures, Wallace used phosphorescent glass and ceramic glaze. The fixtures absorb sunlight during the day and at night they glow with a Tron-like green color, allowing you to navigate your bathroom in the dark without hurting yourself. Wallace coupled this feature with a futuristic bathroom design which looks like it belongs in a laboratory on the moon. When the lights are out, though, it reminds us more of Burning Man, which gives us the compelling idea of using this bathroom to host dance parties.

The design qualified Wallace as a finalist in the 2013 Reece Bathroom Innovation Awards (yes, that’s a real organization). People competing to “create tomorrow’s bathroom today” were ranked by judges on criteria such as technology, aesthetic merit and functionality.

Bill Rodgers is a Contributing Editor at CFile.

Above image: Bathroom design for Inspired by the Aurora Australis by designer Deb Wallace.

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