Green in the water closet

Not something we typically blog about, the home bathroom, but two recent articles about plants in said space caught our attention.

Image: Phyto-Purification Bathroom, image courtesy of Jun Yasumoto (source)

The first is Jun Yasumoto's Phyto-Purification Bathroom in which "water from the shower and the washbasin is filtered through an organic system before being re-used."

Image: Phyto-Purification Bathroom mechanics, image courtesy of Jun Yasumoto (source)

Filtration is a five-step process detailed here and involves four types of plants: rushes, reeds, water hyacinths, and lemnas (duckweed family).

Image: Moss Carpet, image courtesy of La Chanh Nguyen (source)

We spotted La Chanh Nguyen's Moss Carpet -- the second plant-based bathroom product -- on the Cohabitaire blog.  La Chanh responded to our questions about her design intent.

The idea was to a new way of having your plants inside. Not only plants in pots quietly standing in the corner of a living room but alive plants, evolving in the house. (The object and the plants used stimulate our different senses.) This bathroom carpet is made of recycled latex foam mainly coming from vegetal sources. Each cell welcomes a piece of moss (forest moss).* The humidity of the bathroom and the drops flowing from the body water the mosses. This vegetation carpet procures a great feeling to your feet.

Image: Moss Carpet base, image courtesy of La Chanh Nguyen (source)

La Chanh also wrote to us that because she had been fielding a lot of interest in the moss carpet, she partnered with a French company to commercialize the carpet which is now available worldwide via HoO design. Because of plant importation restrictions, the base is sold separately so that customers can plant the cells with local vegetation.

*Read more about the threatened/endangered status of forest moss:
Huge Market for Forest Moss Raises Concerns (Science Daily)
Moss Conservation behind Bars (Conservation Magazine)