An Architect’s Restroom Revolution
April 27, 2017
ARCHITECT Joel Sanders wants to reinvent the public restroom.
Sanders presented his vision in a recent interview with the architecture critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer. His brave, new designs eliminate old-fashioned and oppressive sex-segregation in lavatories.
Warning: Please approach Mr. Sanders’ words with a mirror. His frequent suggestions that human beings were psychologically sick because they believed in sex-segregated accommodations for this basic process reveal the sickness of a certain distressingly common state of mind — a mind haughty enough to deem universal public opinion wrong.
From the interview:
I’m interested in bathrooms, and have been for the past 20 years, because [I want to make loads of money] they exemplify the way in which everyday common spaces reflect our cultural values. The bathroom is where social, political, psychological, technological, and legal forces all converge. Bathrooms tend to be the most expensive room per square foot [loads of money], yet we tend to take them for granted. The bathroom is just one way designed environments shape how the body interacts with space, yet architects often forget that what we’re supposed to be designing for the human body. It’s perhaps the most intimate architectural space we inhabit.
His plan?
We advocate a multi-stall solution that treats the public restroom as one single open space. No longer will gender non-conforming people have to choose between two unacceptable options .
Instead, the gender conforming will have only one unacceptable option.
It’s a communal space based on the model of the agora, which encourages mixing.
Ancient Greece was one of the most sex-segregated societies in history. Nice trick though to conjure a traditionalist, relatively appealing society when you are planning to introduce some modern, soulless form of perversion. Rather than the agora, Mr. Sanders design is more reminiscent of the cow barn.
Animals relieve themselves with no concern for sex differences or hang-ups about modesty. In this age of mass herding, our restrooms will be even more cattle-like as well. Read More »