News of: Sunday, April 10 2005,
Alderman Guido Frankfurther opened the new Urilift on the Rembrandtplein square, last Friday. It will replace its plastic predecessor.
The Urilift is a special kind of urinal (men only) that can sink into the ground, and come out again at busy times.
Rembrandtplein is one of the Amsterdam squares that get very busy in the weekends, because of the many pubs and clubs.
To prevent the men from urinating against buildings the city used to come along with trucks with plastic urinals (called 'plaskruis'), and place them at various locations. They were taken away after the weekend.
The new Urilift is a far more sophisticated, design version of the plastic urinal. It is made of metal, and is connected to the sewage system, to the water system (so you can flush it) and to the electricity network.
It is practically maintenance-free, and can easily be operated with a remote control. It is self-cleaning and 'vandalism-proof'.
The Urilift can simply sink into the ground, to become completely invisible. When it is needed again, you can make it reappear by pressing a button.
