Washroom Washroom Ross Flitney Category="Architectural elements"Category="Toilets"
Public toilet redirects here. For the film, see Public Toilet (film).

[image] A washroom is a room for washing one's hands (such as a lavatory), but the term also is used to denote a Toilet room, also sometimes referred to as a restroom. It is also used to refer to a public toilet.

Washroom architecture refers to the architectural design and layout of washroom facilities, usually of a public commercial, or industrial facility.

Terminology

Usually the term "washroom" is used to denote a public, commercial, or industrial facility designed for high throughput, whereas a similar term "bathroom" is used to denote a smaller, often residential facility for lesser throughput (i.e., often for only one person at a time to use).

Gender and public washrooms

[image] Separation by sex is so characteristic of public toilets that pictograms of a man or a woman are used to indicate where the respective toilets are. These pictograms are sometimes (e.g. in California) enclosed within standard geometric forms to reinforce this information, with a circle representing a women's toilet and a triangle representing a men's facility. Pictograms such as those shown at the right (from the D.O.T.) have been criticized for perpetuating gender stereotypes; however, there may be no practical alternatives.

However, note that many European washroom doors used to be (and still sometimes are) only marked "WC", which can cause confusion to non-Europeans.

Sex-separated public washrooms are a source of difficulty for some people, for example, people with children of the opposite sex, or men caring for babies when only the women's washroom has been fitted with a change table.

Sex-separated public washrooms are often difficult to negotiate for transgendered or androgynous people, who are often subject to embarrassment, harassment, or even assault or arrest by others offended by the presence of a person they interpret as being of the other gender (whether due to their outward presentation or their genital status). Transgendered people have been arrested for using not only bathrooms that correspond to their gender of identification, but also ones that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth.

Many existing public washrooms are gender-neutral. Additionally, some public places (such as facilities targeted to the transgendered or homosexual communities, and a few universities and offices) provide individual washrooms that are not gender-specified, specifically in order to respond to the concerns of gender-variant people; but this remains very rare and often controversial. Various courts have ruled on whether transgendered people have the right to use the washroom of their gender of identification.

A significant number of facilities have additional gender-neutral public washrooms for a different reason- they are marked not for being for females or males, but for handicapped persons, and are adequately equipped to allow those in wheelchairs to use them.

Toilets in private homes are practically never separated by sex.

Fixtures

[image] Washrooms usually contain the following fixtures (the urinals generally being only present on the men's side):

Modern washroom architecture

[image] [image] Modern washrooms usually have the following features:

Backworld service access and utilities passages

Modern washrooms often have a backworld service entrance, utilities passages, and the like, that run behind all the fixtures. Wall mount toilets that bolt on from behind the wall have replaced floor mount toilets. Sensors are installed in a separate room, behind the fixtures. Usually the separate room is just a narrow corridor, or narrow passageway. Each sensor views through a small window into each fixture. Sometimes the metal plates that house the sensor windows are bolted on from behind, to prevent tampering. Additionally, all of the electrical equipment is safely behind the walls, so that there is no danger of electric shock. However, a RCCB must be (and usually is) still used for all such electrical equipment.

A futuristic architecture is often achieved through a nice juxtaposition of industrial concrete, glass brick, some high quality black marble, and stainless steel structural supports, where the glass brick also serves to separate the backworld passage from the main washroom. The use of sensor operated sinks, toilets, urinals, and hand dryers, together with backworld-installed lighting often adds to the modern aesthetic and functionality.

Backworld lighting consisting of windows that run all the way around the outside of the washrooms uses electric lights behind the windows, to create the illusion of extensive natural light, even when the washrooms are underground or otherwise don't have access to natural light. The windows are sometimes made of Glass brick, permanently cemented in place. Lighting installed in service tunnels that run around the outside of the washrooms provides optimum safety from electrical shock (keeping the lights outside the washrooms), hygiene (no cracks or openings), security (no way for vandals to access the light bulbs), and aesthetics (clean architectural lines that maintain a continuity of whatever aesthetic design is present, e.g. the raw industrial urban aesthetic that works well with glass brick).

Multi-use facilities

Some washrooms also function, in part, as changerooms, owing to their gender-segregated nature. For example, in beach areas, a portion of each washroom is often equipped with benches so that persons can change into or out of their bathing suits. In this case, some such washrooms include a sixth and seventh kind of fixture: showers; and soap/shampoo dispensers. Many modern showers and soap/shampoo dispensers are sensor operated, and time-out when used excessively.

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