Entire deadstock of original tiles designed by Herzog & de Meuron for the toilets throughout the Tate Modern Switch House (c.2015). From a single batch, manufactured in Italy by Mutina for Domus.
Material: Porcelain (embossed, glazed, satin)
Dimensions: 98.5mm x 98.5mm x 6.5mm
Quantity: Approx 15000
In a graphically clever but somewhat gender-clumsy move, these tiles were designed to be installed in a W orientation in the women’s, as Ms in the men’s and as WM in the accessible toilets throughout the Tate Modern Switch House extension (competition 2005, project 2005-2012, realisation 2010-2016). As time goes by, the decision has looked increasingly archaic, or perhaps more accurately, archaic to an increasing proportion of visitors.
However, with the 2024 government announcement of retrograde laws to ‘halt the march’ of gender-neutral toilets, and the UK Supreme Court’s regressive 2025 ruling on the legal definition of a woman, the tiling in the loos at the world’s fifth most visited museum has become politically charged like never before.
Ok, a touch hyperbolic perhaps. But, coming up to the 10-year anniversary of the completion of the building, the remainder of these original tiles, warehoused for nearly a decade, might now be used in more politically evolved symbolic arrangements - rotated or randomised, appearing as zips or heatwaves.
Tile your own gender-neutral toilet as an act of micro-resistance. Place your negroni or hot cocoa on a subtly subversive coaster. Give your risotto time to rest on a trivet of disobedience. Or, write to the Tate and encourage them to re-tile the loos using the same tiles, rotated or randomised, as a symbol of the institution's commitment to progress and inclusion. I’ll do them a good deal.
