Terrazzo From Broken Toilets
July 31, 2026 · Field Notes
New York throws away a lot of toilets. Cracked tanks, chipped bowls, renovation casualties — porcelain by the dumpsterful, headed for landfill.
Porcelain is a beautiful material. It just had a bad job.
The counters in our rooms will be terrazzo cast with crushed porcelain from broken toilets. Ground down, set in the surface, polished flat. The city's old problem becomes the surface of its fix — and you can run your hand across it.
Under each counter sits a refurbished vintage sideboard, a different find in every room, raised open underneath so a wheelchair rolls right up. Nothing matches. Everything belongs.
We're at the smashing-and-testing stage: breaking porcelain, sorting the pieces, seeing what the chips look like set and polished. Some of it is lovely. Some of it looks like a crime scene in a china shop. That's what prototyping is for.