Clivus Multrum
The integral urban house contains a multitude of pathways for utilizing waste—including human waste. The clivus multrum composting toilet, designed by Rikard Lindstrom in 1939, uses gravity to its advantage through a sloping plane which brings waste matter down through a series of stages to a composting chamber, where the material remains (about a year) until it is ready to be accessed and reintroduced into the energy loop as nitrogen-rich fertilizer. “The Clivus composting toilet uses aerobic decomposition to slowly break down both urine and feces into stable compounds within the polyethylene composting unit.” 1 The end product is both biologically and chemically stable, and is generated at a rate of roughly one gallon for every twenty uses, and can even be automatically pumped into a separate storage tank from the compost chamber. The toilet itself is vital to the mechanics of the integral urban house because human occupation is as much a part of the system as the plants and animals which grow in and occupy the yard, 2 and so the clivus multrum toilet provides a medium through which humans can give back to the system (aside from making sure everything is in working order) while being environmentally conscious, in that it strays from the methods of conventional waste treatment which pollute by design. 3