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History and Design of the Bathroom Part 6: Learning from the Japanese

12:25 pm in bathroom, design, health, history of the bathroom, japan, toilets by TreeHugger

history bathroom part 5 image Onna yu ("Bathhouse Women") by Torii Kiyonaga Siegfried Giedion, in Mechanization Takes Command, writes:
The bath and its purpose have held different meanings for different ages. The manner in which a civilization integrates bathing within its life, as well as the type of bathing it prefers, yields searching insight into the inner nature of the period....The role that bathing plays within a culture reveals the culture's attitude toward human relaxation. It is a measure of how far individual well-being is regarded as an indispensable part of community life.
I have described how in the western world, t...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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The History of the Bathroom Part 5: Alexander Kira and Designing For People, Not Plumbing

10:07 am in bathroom, designers, history of the bathroom, toilets by TreeHugger

alexander kira bathroom sink image Images credit Alexander Kira, the Bathroom Book Have a look at your sink after you brush your teeth or shave. There is stuff all over it that you have to clean up. You can't wash your hair in it. Alexander Kira of Cornell University looked at the bathroom sink, and toilet and tub, in the early sixties and was appalled. He wrote:
Architects and builders - who actually are the purchasers and who actually are responsible for the design of our bathrooms - must begin to think of hygiene facilities as an important part of the home and as an important aspect of our daily lives rather than as a necessary evil to be accommodated ac...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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History of the Bathroom Part 4: The Perils of Prefabrication

1:49 pm in bathroom, design, green design, history of the bathroom by TreeHugger

history of bathroom image fuller In 1940, Buckminster Fuller receieved Patent 2220482 for a prefabricated bathroom. Fuller wrote in his claim:
Attempts have been made heretofore to provide prefabricated bathrooms with the object of lowering the cost of building a bathroom into a dwelling. Such bathrooms, however, by reason of their great weight and more or less conventional construction, have involved relatively high costs by the time they have been shipped and installed for use....It is an object of my invention ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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