RANT: Architects & Contractors: Stop building dumb bathrooms!

[Xath]

Wow. I think that the handicap stall in the bathroom should be the closest to the door, not the furthest away.

I love the street bathrooms in Paris, because I always know that they're sparkling clean. As soon as you leave, the door closes and the entire unit flushes itself out with a disinfectant solution. I don't mind paying to use the bathroom for that kind of hygine security.

 

[der_kluge]

Public bathrooms aren't immune to this idiocy. The last house we owned, the default bathroom floorplan was idiotic.

When you walked out of the shower door, you'd find yourself standing naked in front of a huge window. Not block windows, just a regular window. And I'm not a big fan of the "toilet closet" that a lot of houses use. This is where you have a smaller room inside the bathroom which is just large enough for a toilet and nothing else. It wastes a ton of space.

This bathroom also had a door which led to the closet. That's right, the master bedroom's closet was accessed through the bathroom. Dumb.

I redisgned that bathroom myself - moved the door to the other side of the wall for the closet, removed the toilet closet, and just put the toilet in the open. I saved so much space, that I was able to squeeze in an entire jacuzzi bathtub.

The builder said that he was going to use my design from then on out.

Thank god.

 

[Ulrik]

5) And all across the world- even in so-called 1st world nations, even in big cities...please- get rid of the "abyssal hole in the ground" style bathroom! I've seen them in Cannes & Nice (France), Moscow (Russia)...don't tell me those cities don't have the money to replace them.

I encountered these in Turkey long ago, and I was told that the locals refused to use our version (with seats), because they found it unhygienic.

And if I could be bothered to learn to use the hole without fear of falling into it, I'd agree with them.

 

[Ferret]

On my recent trip to Russia, we encountered the holes in the Moscow train station...the first woman came out horrified..."They can't AIM!" she wailed.

All of the other women managed to clench it up until we were well underway to St. Petersburg.

Don't ever try to flush them either. I used one in france, the water came up past the foot-raising blocks......It was not clear water.

Wow. I think that the handicap stall in the bathroom should be the closest to the door, not the furthest away.

I love the street bathrooms in Paris, because I always know that they're sparkling clean. As soon as you leave, the door closes and the entire unit flushes itself out with a disinfectant solution. I don't mind paying to use the bathroom for that kind of hygine security.

I've also encounted bathrooms with taps activated by motion and pedals/knee presses. No hands involved. This was france, and I loved them.

 

[Harmon]

I'm a carpenter.

A few years ago I worked on a hospital- one of the buildings was a social services building that took care of young ones. One area had a couple of tottler sized toilets that were behind a counter where people worked, so the kids would go behind the counter to do their business in full view of the people behind the counter and anyone could watch them over the counter, or through the window behind them that was the play yard.

Ya, architects not the most intelligent people, but think about this- some moron somewhere thinks that the design where little kids are in full 360 degree view is a good idea.

Don't blame the contractors, they only build whats on the drawn page. Most of the time we're all laughing at how stupid the architect is that drew that dreck.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Can someone please describe or post a picture to these abyssal hole in the ground bathrooms i dont think i've ever seen or heard of them before.

 

[WayneLigon]

Ya, architects not the most intelligent people, but think about this- some moron somewhere thinks that the design where little kids are in full 360 degree view is a good idea.

Given where it was, it seems very possible that it could be that it was specified to be exactly that, so that no-one could be alone with a little kid in a bathroom out of view of others.

Similarly to why newer parking garages almost always have transparent elevators: the idea is that it reduces assaults on lone women.

Some other bad designs (though perhaps it's more a case of being unfamiliar with such things):

1. Showers that activate in weird ways. A friend of mine has a bath/shower combo. When I went to take a shower, I see no way of actually turning the shower on. Finally I figure out that I have to pull down the rim of the bath's faucet to start the shower. Once I'm done... well, how do you turn it off? Turns out you have to turn the water off to reset the ring.

2. I spent a week in a fancy hotel suite once. I'd never encountered the kind of light switches that turn off by galvanic skin response (or something) before. There were no light switches, just these little brass studs that looked like decorations on the lamp and the bed frame. They didn't press in or anything; you had to brush your finger across the brass surface. So I get ready to turn off the headboard lights and... can't. It was two days before I accidentaly brushed one of the studs while looking, and it turned off.

Looking for other bad design, examples, I found this example of (literal) social engineering...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When you walked out of the shower door, you'd find yourself standing naked in front of a huge window. Not block windows, just a regular window. And I'm not a big fan of the "toilet closet" that a lot of houses use. This is where you have a smaller room inside the bathroom which is just large enough for a toilet and nothing else. It wastes a ton of space.

That was my parents' new house- and the bathroom was on the front of the house, with the window not facing the street, but the neigbors' house down the street.

We put in glass brick windows next to the jacuzzi, and a stained glass window in the "toilet closet."

Don't ever try to flush them either. I used one in france, the water came up past the foot-raising blocks......It was not clear water.

No...these were non-flushable. Just. Holes. In. The. Bathroom. Floor.

Don't blame the contractors, they only build whats on the drawn page. Most of the time we're all laughing at how stupid the architect is that drew that dreck.

I will still blame them. They could easily go "Y'know...you build it that way and people will be able to see rosy pink asses from the parking lot 400 yards away" or "Um...that stall is too narrow for anyone over age 12."

 

[glass]

I was in southern Spain recently, and a lot of the toilets had a urinal and a normal WC pan, both within the same (lockable) area, so only one could be used at once.

We wondered for a while why they would have both, when you could plainly only use one at a time, until somone pointed out that the urinal probably uses less water to flush -a serious issue in that part of the world.


glass.

 

[kenobi65]

4) Bathrooms in which both trough-style urinals and sinks are used. Drunks cannot tell the difference!

In most places in the U.S., trough-style urinals aren't allowed in new construction (something about hygiene issues...). About the only place you'll see them now is in older sports arenas.

Though, this reminds me of a comment I read once about Lambeau Field (before they rebuilt it and significantly improved the restrooms):
"It's 3 degrees below zero, and I'm standing in a ten-deep line to pee in a sink."