New Bathroom Mirror Guilts Users Into Sustainable Water Consumption

Images via Yanko Design

This intriguing - and somewhat complex - concept design for a bathroom mirror brings the water crisis right in front of your face. The mirror is lit with LEDs powered by the flow of water in the pipes. As you use the mirror throughout the year, the patterns of water use and supply create a frame, and you can see how your habits affect the planet.

Designer Jin Kim's idea is that the mirror breaks down daily, monthly and annual use of water. As you use too much water, there's a control in the mirror so your supply can be limited. And if the lights are meaningless to the user, there are also icons for those who are affected by water misuse - kids, ecosystems, polar bears - so you're guilted into shutting off the faucet.

At the end of a year, you can see your usage patterns and know what kind of progress you've made in trimming down your consumption.

Design kinks aside -- such as how to power the mirror's LEDs if you're constantly reducing the flow of water down the drain and so reducing the amount of harvested energy, and if that's even a way to harvest enough energy for 1 LED, let alone dozens -- if you needed a way to keep the water crisis front and center during your morning routine, this would be the design for you.