Plumbing Esthetics

...Ideally, each bathroom would have a "home urinal" that would fold into the wall (above the water closet) and that "should look as little like the urinal found in 'men's rooms' as possible...

...Reviewed by RONALD MARTINETTI In 1915 Marcel Duchamp, the French-born artist who helped found the American Dada movement, separated a urinal from its plumbing, placed the urinal on a pedestal and exhibited it as a work of art entitled The Fountain...

...Part of the responsibility for this "neglect," Kira contends lies with the "plumbing industry" which is "dominated by a handful of companies" that manufacture most of the basic fixtures...

...Not only is the average American bathroom inartistic concludes Alexander Kira, an associate professor of architecture whose book on the subject is drawn from Cornell's findings, but it is also "unhygienic," "unsafe" and "hopelessly inadequate...

...But despite all its uses, and its necessity, the bathroom—unlike, for example, the kitchen—has remained virtually untouched by the advances of modern technology...

...These manufacturers have little "direct contact with the consumer" and sell their products to the public "through plumbers who, for various reasons, have little concern with, or understanding for, the consumer's wishes or needs...

...Kira's work is indeed a needed and welcome appraisal of a subject that is seldom talked about, much less studied in depth...

...Less revolutionary and probably less controversial are Kira's criticisms that bathrooms are inadequately lighted, not properly ventilated (thus the steaming up of mirrors), and not nearly as soundproof as they ought to be—and as people would like them to be...

...Certain critics who seem to have been especially outraged by that experiment can now perhaps rest easier in their graves: According to the results of a $100,000, seven-year study sponsored by Cornell University, the American bathroom and its equipment—neither of which has changed appreciably in the last 50 years—is an esthetical disaster area...

...Noise emanating from the bathroom would be greatly reduced by the adoption of sound-absorbing (and moisture resistant) ceilings and wall-to-wall (washable) carpeting, he suggests...

...Such proposals, of course, require—and merit—more discussion and consideration than can be devoted to them in the short space of a book review...

...The reasons for this neglect are complex," writes Kira, "and involve the societal and psychological taboos which surround the subject and which seem almost to have built up into a culture-wide embarrassment...

...One of the improvements outlined by Kira is a sink without faucets or a spout...

...for face washing it can be 'pushed back' out of the way...

...For reasons having to do with the physiology of the human abdominal cavity, Kira feels the latter should be built close to the floor so that the user must "assume the full squat [position] we are accustomed to seeing primitive peoples assume...

...The privileged character of the bathroom, it is pointed out, is often utilized to obtain privacy for a variety of emotional purposes like sulking, crying, daydreaming, and in some unfortunate instances, committing suicide...

...In addition, the rim around the basin of the sink would be "pitched inward" to facilitate drainage and permit maximum freedom for arm movement...

...Not surprisingly, in one survey conducted by Cornell a significant number of respondents indicated a desire for considerably larger windows than those commonly found in bathrooms, because larger windows could not be identified from the outside as belonging to the bathroom?implying that they did not even have a bathroom...

...Other equally provocative design proposals encompass the bath and shower facilities, and the water closet...

...These range from shining shoes and steaming clothes to employing the bathroom as a photographic dark room or a "telephone booth" for making "personal" phone calls...

...Calm in tone, academic in approach, The Bathroom examines exactly what is wrong with our hygienic facilities and offers (as the subtitle indicates) criteria for designs that would certainly improve, if not remedy, a bad situation...

...Carpeting would also lessen the chances of slipping, as would "non-slip surfaces" in the tub and shower...

...Since it is a multi-purpose room, the bathroom area should also be enlarged to accommodate the large number of miscellaneous activities not connected with personal hygiene that are performed there...

...A minor revolution," asserts Professor Kira, will have to take place before this "isolation from the consumer" is ended, and before "the veil of embarrassment" is entirely lifted...

...Lever controls ("easier to grip with wet or soapy hands") would replace the faucets, and "a fountain type of water source" which can be regulated to fall anywhere within the sink would be used instead of a spout...

...For hand washing," the author explains, "the stream can be brought quite close...

...The simple and inevitable body functions have largely come to be regarded as unmentionable and vulgar...

...This attitude is reflected in the incredible array of euphemisms Americans have devised to avoid saying "the toilet" when they refer to that room in front of other people...

...Then the "most basic human activity can be examined without fear and the facilities to accommodate it can assume their proper place of importance in the home...

...An incidental advantage is its natural usefulness as a drinking fountain...

...Interference from the spout is eliminated...