There were times I would answer proudly when my friends in architecture school asked where I was doing my internship. But most often, I was hit to rock bottom when they asked further about my works as an intern. My proud and loud answer was replaced in a sudden with an embarrassed voice to state the fact that I was responsible for all things-related with bathroom design.
Designing a toilet remained a strange thing for me, whether it is the first time I found out that there are countless options to pick for a single faucet, new technologies that develop every day, and that people care about their bathroom the way far more than I thought. Whether it was a villa next to an exotic lake that the client wanted wood-themed sanitary wares with life-warranties or a modern house in the capital that the owner aspired to have a bathtub with aromatherapy system to release stress after battling the unbearable traffic. Even for a small house with a tight budget, they still want a uniquely designed corner to do the daily urge to reunite with water.
Although humans have always had the need to cleanse themselves, it took centuries for our culture to bring the important functions together into one convenient room. It was a bit of surprise for me when I learned about Scandinavian Housing in Norwegian Folk Museum that the luxurious and modern house in the 60's Oslo didn't include a bathroom inside. Instead of bathing, they used linen and with a washing basin only. I guess because of they haven't advanced the hot water plumbings yet, therefore in the midst of winter it wasn't possible for taking a shower. The same reason goes for why most of western people use tissue instead of water. The culture continued up until today, for the sake of familiarity.
Meanwhile thousands kilometers to the south, in Java, Indonesia, we also emerged from the age of my grandparents’ borderless bathroom in the river until today’s automatically-heated water closet. I consider myself born in the right time and place to witness the drastic transformation of bathrooms in my culture.
The original traditional houses didn’t have a bathroom. With the tropical climate we had, the people still enjoyed utilizing directly the facilities nature has provided. Back then the water was still perfectly unpolluted, shadowed with big trees and big stones as the barrier, a river was such a paradise that old men told us stories about beautiful nymphs who loved to bath there. Settlements were set at the bank of the river where people made use of it on a daily basis and functioned as social interaction node as well. Later when the western culture through colonization and modernization came up with the idea of hygiene, Javanese people started to believe that having their house equipped with a room to bathe is a better way of living. Their traditional houses were definitely configured without indoor bathrooms. For this reason, they started to build additional building outside the core structure to house their sanitary needs. That was how my first bathroom like.
My childhood house was an old traditional house that probably was built at 70’s. The bathroom was a brick-walled room with a size of 3 x 4 meters consisted of a huge and tall concrete water tub---that lingered in my memory as a child because I couldn’t see its surface and believed it might contain a crocodile inside---and a separated 3 x 2 meters room with a squatting closet. To use this bathroom even is a lot easier rather than bathing in the nearby river, still required hard work and dedication. Those times when plumbing system had not been provided by the government, financially-sufficient people built a well as the main source of water for their house. The well until around 2000s hadn’t been equipped with an electric pump, people used a manual pulley machine and poured it directly bucket by bucket into the tub through a small basin. The water tubs were designed big and tall in order to contain more water so the water-pulling could be done less frequently. We hadn’t encountered shower yet, that was why we showered ourselves manually using a plastic bucket. Next to the tub, we had an elevated platform covered with jagged tiles to wash clothes. It seemed that the view towards bathing and washing as a single entity still haunted most people. This configuration of bathroom clearly didn’t allow the users to linger in there. That was why as I could recall, the room next to the bathroom with the closet is more of a favorite for everyone in my family. It was smaller in size but accommodated more sense of privacy. We might squat on our feet, only with tranquility.
The description of my first bathroom was not pleasant, but perhaps that was what some people in that era were struggling for. To control the society to shift from the old habit and decrease the rate of diseases caused by dirty rivers, the government started to enforce the “bathroomization” by providing public bathrooms in slum areas. This construction still allowed people to utilize it communally, only this time the bath were separated by walls and roofed by cheap metals. The social node of bathing was still existed but the paradise was gone. There were no more nymphs among us while waiting in line to use stinky and hot public bathrooms.
The water tub with its bucket and squatting toilet might be the root of Indonesian toilet which now has transformed into a variety of preferences. With many people figured out better economic condition and influenced by other cultures at the same time, they seek more comforts inside their bathrooms. Whether for people who prefer a compact bathroom or upscale back-to-nature resort bathroom, their bathroom goals are moving into one direction. The heaven right now is no longer solely lies in the water but also the sense of privacy we could get from it.
Today, bathroom has reserved a complicated position as a sanctuary of purest human instinct as well as a symbol of status. Also in accordance of soap and shampoo marketing, how frequent somebody takes a bath has been considered a social norm. Today, even a presence of little cockroach nymph might be intolerable for our longing of either tranquility or hygiene in the bathrooms.
Designing a toilet remained a strange thing for me, whether it is the first time I found out that there are countless options to pick for a single faucet, new technologies that develop every day, and that people care about their bathroom the way far more than I thought. Whether it was a villa next to an exotic lake that the client wanted wood-themed sanitary wares with life-warranties or a modern house in the capital that the owner aspired to have a bathtub with aromatherapy system to release stress after battling the unbearable traffic. Even for a small house with a tight budget, they still want a uniquely designed corner to do the daily urge to reunite with water.
“Bathroom is the closest heaven we can imagine”
Avianti Armand, Arsitektur yang Lain (2009)
Although humans have always had the need to cleanse themselves, it took centuries for our culture to bring the important functions together into one convenient room. It was a bit of surprise for me when I learned about Scandinavian Housing in Norwegian Folk Museum that the luxurious and modern house in the 60's Oslo didn't include a bathroom inside. Instead of bathing, they used linen and with a washing basin only. I guess because of they haven't advanced the hot water plumbings yet, therefore in the midst of winter it wasn't possible for taking a shower. The same reason goes for why most of western people use tissue instead of water. The culture continued up until today, for the sake of familiarity.
On the right, it was the corner where the Norsk wiped and cleaned their bodies inside the house in the 50's
However, in a replica of an apartment building, there was a separated toilets with 4 rooms in 2 levels.
I really love the early design of Scandinavian sitting toilet!
Meanwhile thousands kilometers to the south, in Java, Indonesia, we also emerged from the age of my grandparents’ borderless bathroom in the river until today’s automatically-heated water closet. I consider myself born in the right time and place to witness the drastic transformation of bathrooms in my culture.
The original traditional houses didn’t have a bathroom. With the tropical climate we had, the people still enjoyed utilizing directly the facilities nature has provided. Back then the water was still perfectly unpolluted, shadowed with big trees and big stones as the barrier, a river was such a paradise that old men told us stories about beautiful nymphs who loved to bath there. Settlements were set at the bank of the river where people made use of it on a daily basis and functioned as social interaction node as well. Later when the western culture through colonization and modernization came up with the idea of hygiene, Javanese people started to believe that having their house equipped with a room to bathe is a better way of living. Their traditional houses were definitely configured without indoor bathrooms. For this reason, they started to build additional building outside the core structure to house their sanitary needs. That was how my first bathroom like.
My childhood house was an old traditional house that probably was built at 70’s. The bathroom was a brick-walled room with a size of 3 x 4 meters consisted of a huge and tall concrete water tub---that lingered in my memory as a child because I couldn’t see its surface and believed it might contain a crocodile inside---and a separated 3 x 2 meters room with a squatting closet. To use this bathroom even is a lot easier rather than bathing in the nearby river, still required hard work and dedication. Those times when plumbing system had not been provided by the government, financially-sufficient people built a well as the main source of water for their house. The well until around 2000s hadn’t been equipped with an electric pump, people used a manual pulley machine and poured it directly bucket by bucket into the tub through a small basin. The water tubs were designed big and tall in order to contain more water so the water-pulling could be done less frequently. We hadn’t encountered shower yet, that was why we showered ourselves manually using a plastic bucket. Next to the tub, we had an elevated platform covered with jagged tiles to wash clothes. It seemed that the view towards bathing and washing as a single entity still haunted most people. This configuration of bathroom clearly didn’t allow the users to linger in there. That was why as I could recall, the room next to the bathroom with the closet is more of a favorite for everyone in my family. It was smaller in size but accommodated more sense of privacy. We might squat on our feet, only with tranquility.
Typical separated bathroom in Java
The description of my first bathroom was not pleasant, but perhaps that was what some people in that era were struggling for. To control the society to shift from the old habit and decrease the rate of diseases caused by dirty rivers, the government started to enforce the “bathroomization” by providing public bathrooms in slum areas. This construction still allowed people to utilize it communally, only this time the bath were separated by walls and roofed by cheap metals. The social node of bathing was still existed but the paradise was gone. There were no more nymphs among us while waiting in line to use stinky and hot public bathrooms.
The water tub with its bucket and squatting toilet might be the root of Indonesian toilet which now has transformed into a variety of preferences. With many people figured out better economic condition and influenced by other cultures at the same time, they seek more comforts inside their bathrooms. Whether for people who prefer a compact bathroom or upscale back-to-nature resort bathroom, their bathroom goals are moving into one direction. The heaven right now is no longer solely lies in the water but also the sense of privacy we could get from it.
Today, bathroom has reserved a complicated position as a sanctuary of purest human instinct as well as a symbol of status. Also in accordance of soap and shampoo marketing, how frequent somebody takes a bath has been considered a social norm. Today, even a presence of little cockroach nymph might be intolerable for our longing of either tranquility or hygiene in the bathrooms.
