NonA Weekly: FLUSH AWAY 🌊
Image by @bobs-burgers
Dear readers and friends,
As architects, it is important to consider all aspects of building design, including the often-overlooked topic of toilets 🚽 and sanitation. While it may not be the most glamorous aspect of building design, it is crucial to ensure that the facilities we design are safe, efficient, and hygienic 🧼 for the people who will use them. Poorly designed or maintained toilets and sanitation systems can lead to public health issues, including the spread of disease 🦠 and contamination of water supplies 💧. Additionally, considering the needs of people with disabilities 👩🦽, gender inclusivity 👫, and cultural sensitivities 👩🏻👨🧑🏿can lead to more equitable and accessible spaces. Therefore, as architects, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding 💡 of toilet and sanitation design to create buildings that are safe and welcoming for everyone.
1. SUSTAINABLE SANITATION ♻️ AND TOILET DESIGN
TOILETS must be made to adapt to the public and not the other way around. Going in for the cheapest 💰 standard specifications to meet quantity and time ⌛ targets will defeat the purpose in the long run.
2. SANITATION IN MODERN HOUSES 🏘️
Despite being the smallest rooms of houses, bathrooms 🛁 have always been one of the most challenging and critical to design, which often left them fairly simplified. The past few years, however, saw these spaces undergo significant CHANGE 💥.
3. A PUBLIC TOILET IN CHINA’S ATOUR VILLAGE IS EMBEDDED INTO THE HILLSIDE 🤯
GN architects presents a playfully-designed 🤪 public restroom in in Atour Village, a town in Qingdao, China. The architects describe 📣 the PROJECT: The sight is captured by three themed buildings, leaving no independent space for the public restroom.
4. 10 YEARS OF REINVENTING THE TOILET 👀
Bringing safe, affordable SANITATION to the world 🌍 would vastly improve the quality of life for the billions without it. It would also act as a “super-vaccine” 💉 that would effectively end the spread of many deadly diseases, just as it already has in places where flush toilets are the norm.
5. THE DESIGN OF SANITATION AND SENTIMENTS 💖
In a discussion 📢 on how public amenities in our towns or cities are related to questions of gender and citizenship, public toilets are a good case in point. One should understand that in a country like India, SANITATION facilities hold more value than a mere obligation 🧻.
6. 12 OF THE WORLD’S BEST TOILETS ✨
Though if creativity 🎨 has taught us anything, it’s that art has no boundaries. In more than one of these portrayed POTTIES, we can bare witness to the genius 💡 combination and impressive presentation of architecture, plumbing and practicality.
7. THE ARCHITECTURE OF PUBLIC TOILETS 🏛️
Often mistreated for their prosaic nature, 🤔 public RESTROOMS represent civic sense and urban culture, and provide a point of connection 🔗 between man and architecture in the city.
Stay creative and see you all next week! 👋
Daniela
