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A design team created as part of the incubator programme at hopes to inaugurate a ¡°new era¡± in global toilet design.

Their ideas for the company, Trone, were initially developed in ¡°the world¡¯s biggest start-up campus¡± known as , where HEC runs programmes. It is there that they will install their first eight customised toilets in a new restaurant called Felicita, which forms part of the culinary empire (itself run by two HEC alumni).

¡°Toilets have an amazing history,¡± said Trone?chief executive officer Hugo Volpei. ¡°And [they are] so central to our lives. There are studies showing that in an average lifespan a human spends an entire year in this space. And yet we spend more time choosing our sofa or cupboard than the toilet we use so often.¡±

The toilets at Station F have been given unusual names such as ¡°Origines¡±, ¡°Le Sacr¨¦¡±, ¡°Arc-en-ciel¡± and ¡°Chalet¡±. Trone¡¯s longer-term plans to make their products ¡°desirable, identifiable and differentiable¡± include a second generation of toilets?that will use artificial intelligence, digital technology and robotics, as well as essential oil sprays, to ¡°facilitate self-cleaning mechanisms¡±.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com