Examining the Unmentionables

What's wrong with bathrooms?

Just about everything, according to a six-year, $100,000 study just completed by Cornell University. And the worst offender of all is that old unmentionable, the toilet. Not only has it not changed basically since plumbing began to move indoors, but it remains "the most ill-suited fixture ever designed." The most natural position, Architecture Professor Alexander Kira and his four assistants discovered after exhaustive research, is squatting. "We may think it is outrageous to squat," says Kira, "but most of the world squats. It is more natural and easier on the body."

Kira's radical proposal is more down to earth: the seat should be just 9 inches high v. about 16 inches for the conventional toilet. For better hygiene, he advocates washing jets fore and aft. The seat itself would be wider, padded, and come with built-in push-up bars, paper holder and electric flush controls. And while on the subject, Kira thinks that the urinal could stand more study. Working with everything from splash diagrams to trajectory charts, the study group proposes a cavern-shaped urinal, suggests that it might pull down from the wall above.

Out with Faucets. The Cornell project got underway when Kira discovered that "kitchens have been researched to death; someone does a study every year. But the bathroom has been left alone." Starting from scratch, the Cornell researchers conducted a questionnaire survey of 1,000 Los Angeles families, found that "once people got talking about bathrooms, they couldn't stop."

Sinks, it appears, are too small and too low. They should be higher and wider. Present faucets should be replaced by a recessed fountain-type water source. The bowl should have a splash lip at the front and be contoured to set up a swirling, self-cleaning water action.

Tubs are now fit for no one. They should be longer and contoured to the bather's body. More hand holds and a nonslip surface are needed to reduce accidents. Since washing in dirty water is a poor way to get clean, hand sprays are proposed to allow bathers to step out of the tub completely cleansed.

No More Slipping. Showers are too small; they should be larger, have a built-in seat, and be enclosed to the ceiling except for the entrance. Different-shaped handles, square for hot and round for cold, would permit the soapy-eyed bather to adjust water temperature without alternately scalding or freezing himself. To avoid slipping while balancing on one leg, a continuous wraparound safety bar is needed. "One can get a car washed automatically in five minutes, while it still takes us 15 minutes to wash ourselves by hand," Kira notes wryly, and predicts that sweeping technological changes are due in personal hygiene.

Already, he points out, automation has taken over in the bathroom-gadget department, with everything from electric toothbrushes and toothpicks to hair dryers and whirlpool agitators. More mechanized conveniences are surely coming. More important, he hopes that his report has finally lifted the "veil of embarrassment," and that the bathroom can be at last openly examined. "Until the bathroom is conceived of and produced as an entity," Kira maintains, "no significant progress can be made."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.