The ?state-of-the-art twin-vault dry-composting urine-separating loo with a view? was recently described by Ianto Evans (author the ?The Hand-Sculpted House?) as ?the best composting toilet I?ve seen anywhere in the world?! It was designed and built by Andy Warren of Natural Solutions based on a Vietnamese innovation.

There are two cubicles opening onto a generous porch looking over the forest to the mountains, hence ?loo with a view?. Beneath each cubicle are two chambers or vaults, each a cubic metre in size. The toilet seat is placed over one chamber. After each use a handful of sawdust or chopped straw is added.

It takes about 18 months to ?fill? the first chamber. Then the toilet seat is switched to the other chamber and a blank placed over the first hole.

As the second chamber is being filled, the contents of the first - helped by worms and micro-organisms - compost down into a rich fertiliser.

Then, 18 months later, they are shovelled out and placed around the fruit trees. The seat is then switched back to its original position.

The floors and seating areas in the loo are made from teak recycled from a bank in the City of London. So, if you make your deposits now in the years to come you'll be able to draw interest in apples!

One ?state-of-the-art? aspect of the design is that pee is separated from crap using a gutter and draining board. It is piped off to fertilise a nearby pear tree. This means that the smell is minimised. As many visitors have said, the odour is much better than most public toilets!

The only water in the whole system is rainwater which supplies the hand basin on the porch and which, as ?grey water?, later washes out the gutter and pipes.

One word of warning for blokes. The loo is not designed as a men?s urinal. If you want a standing up pee you have to use the bushes!