Special guest Susan Surface, former Archinect editor now at Design in Public, joins us on Archinect Sessions to talk about recent developments in the state of gender inclusive design – specifically, in public restrooms.
As the binary model of gender begins to slowly dissolve in the popular consciousness, in favor of a spectrum of different identifications, international building codes still often mandate restrooms (even single-occupancy ones) as strictly for either male or female. Those who do not identify as either face a difficult choice at best, and often harassment or exclusion. Various institutions are experimenting with more gender-inclusive designs and designations, but not without controversy. Advocates liken the advent of all-gender inclusive bathrooms to a civil right, akin to policies that guarantee equal access regardless of ethnicity or physical ability.
Surface, who has addressed more gender-inclusive amendments to building standards before, joins us to discuss the ways that architects can influence and advocate for more inclusive design, and better understand the stakes for those who are currently excluded.
Listen to episode 42 of Archinect Sessions, "Toilet Talk":
Shownotes:
Transgender Law Center’s “Peeing in Peace” primer resource on gender inclusivity in bathrooms
Transgender Law Center's petition to amend international building code (P 43-15)
Public comment in support of P 43-15
Maxwell Ng, architect in Boston
20 Comments
this will be listened to while i'm in the can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri791tauGmU
I had a great conversation with Maxwell Ng - who made some great points... about 20 minutes after we recorded this, so I didn't get to bring it up in the chat.
"Privacy in bathrooms is relegated to only visual privacy. There are still 4 other senses that aren't being kept private. People freak out that there are trans people in bathrooms, and they don't stop to think how weird it is that we share these very private other smells and sounds with people like our bosses."
Exactly! I remember my design studio professor in 1988, who had just come back from a semester in residence in one of the Scandinavian countries, telling us that the majority of bathrooms there were single occupant rooms so you didn't have to hear or smell what was happening next to you. This was the beginning of a very mind-opening and impactful design semester for me in thinking about how humans really use the spaces we build.
When I go to fancy hotels for conferences and whatnot they frequently have public restrooms off the lobby with individual stalls with floor-to-ceiling walls for each toilet.
On the other hand, lots of people all over the world don't have weird hangups about sounds and smells. Even in the West, it used to be totally normal to keep the chamber pot in the bedroom. Of course consolidating people in dense urban areas and sitting with that waste created the health problems we all know about. But also, distancing ourselves from bodily functions and creating shame around them has been a fundamental strategy of white supremacy, colonization, modernism.
^ not wanting to smell shit = White supremacy....?
personal hygene is a product of modern science...understanding that bodily waste is attributed to disease rather than evil spirits and albinos is why things like ebola and birdflu are less likely to evolve in Canada than Congo or Hongkong....
within my own family there are two parts of this spectrum.....on my mothers side having her mom in the bath, dad on the pot with a paper and kids getting ready for school was quite a normal thing. she also taught my daughters to pee in the woods like boys do. my girls think thats just cool. on my dads side it was shut the door and go away. i kind of lean to my mothers side while my is more like my father was..............white guy, mothers dad was a southern Baptist preacher for a bit...........i will take smell division over visual anyday! put that in the building code (exhaust vents in sealed stalls damnit)
jla-x yes to hygiene. disease bad. but now its too much hygiene to the point of not developing an immune system to disease....................truck stop bathrooms late at night are a trip. frankly you better get in and get out. at 18 years old driving across midwest, I went to one bathroom to see a redneck trucker leave a stall with what looked like porky the pig, big pudgy white boy with nothing but overalls on. rock lizards was another term i learned about. also a Bear taking pictures is CB talk for state trooper with a radar................so if the bathrooms become less private will people continue to hook up in them? or wait, was that the fear?............."I once got busy in a burger king bathroom!" - Humpty Hump from digital underground
Wow! Who knew the smell of shit could cause so much disease?! Learn something new everyday from these fucking interns. Damn those farmers are fucked.
When I was in Turkey, many of the public toilets were "holes" that you squat over, I have to say, my first experience with this, but I learned two things, much more sanitary and damn, I need to work on my core and quads.
b3, Im certain that you suffer from some form of narcissism. Ya ever think that higher ground you imagine yourself on is really just a mound of bullshit?
smell of shit = signifier for actual shit...raw waste causes many diseases...
J-laxative, two things, first, if I'm standing above a pile of shit, you're at the bottom, and b, it explains what that smell is, every time you open your yap.
You guys, stop.
I have a very strong constitution for bodily things that many consider gross. But when my coworkers re-heat their lunch on the office microwave it repulses me. Smells can really bring on a strong physical response. I'm fine with a visual of another human doing their business as long as I don't have to smell the poop. So, strong exhaust fans for everyone!
i like it when beta goes off, it's a good time ;)
Donna absolutely smell is the problem. We should be the first to propose building code that deals with smell!
Bottoms Up to Thomas B Crapper.....the Englishman who gave us the Toilet!
I prefer listening to drone avant garde metal or kenny g, covers up ambient sounds and induces the task at hand.
also the cultural relativists that thinks modernism = white supremacy are free to go shoot for the lowest common denimonator and listen to other people's business, though most in those places would give their left arm for working, private toilets.. I'ts a bit racist to suggest that 'other people' don't have the same needs or wants.
one of the keys to the british defeating rommel's afrika corps was shit. you see, the brits had a system where the soldiers had an empty wooden box with a hole cut in it. a fine mesh covered the hole. this kept flies from landing on the feces and doing whatever flies do on shit and then flying away and landing in the mess hall and walking over food with their little fly shit feet. the germans just went out and crapped and the flies walked in that and then walked on the german food with their little shit covered feet. Most of the German army, including Rommel contracted dysentery.
in an NYC subway
small txt - "IN NYC, IT'S THE LAW. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. If you face discrimination based on your gender identity and expression contact the NYC Commission on Human Rights today by calling 311. For more information visit NYC.gov/HumanRights."
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