Architecture for Us - Stories - Cleaning House
Picture yourself… You’ve just finished an exhausting but ultimately satisfying month at your new job. So many late nights, early mornings, and lost weekends, but hey, you’re young, energetic, and single. What else would you have been doing? Not insignificantly, you got the project out on schedule and your supervisor thanked you for your hard work. Wow! Actually gratitude - a new experience. Still, you quietly wonder how often future projects like this will take over your life… But never mind - for now it’s Saturday! Time to celebrate with a little down time. An entire free weekend to yourself.
An entire free weekend… free.
So it must be time to do laundry and clean your house. As you survey the wreck that your home has become you decide to start with your least favorite task: cleaning your bathroom. No problem. Unlike some bathrooms you’ve had in the past, this one is a snap to clean. Cleaning the floor around your wall-mounted toilet is easy. Just a quick mopping. The toilet itself is more or less one smooth piece. Easy to wipe down. The sink? No problem. Your faucet spout extends well into the sink and the water controls are located near the spout. The sink itself is a one piece bowl mounted from below.
The same story continues elsewhere; the shower and countertop, all easy to clean. The whole task goes so fast that you realize you’re going to have time to go for a bike ride with friends in the afternoon. You wonder, why did cleaning the bathroom take so long in the past and why did I hate it so much?
**************************
Pause now for a moment and consider your bathroom. I’ll bet your toilet is floor-mounted and has numerous projections on the exterior bowl that serve no apparent function. Sometimes when I look at toilets it strikes me that the designer was trying to give the toilet and aerodynamic quality; almost as if it could fly. And the area where the toilet meets the floor? Ugh! Depending on how long the toilet has been in place, the sealant joint may have long since given up the ghost, or worse yet, someone may have come back and poorly applied a huge line of new sealant in an effort to fill the gap. It seems that the only hope of ever cleaning it will be to get a toothbrush and intently work in small patches. Lacking that effort it’s easier to just ignore it and move on. Ignore it long enough and after a while the gunk becomes permanent. And how about cleaning behind the toilet? Ugh. Who came up with this system?
And yet, all of this can be avoided with a well designed wall-hung toilet. With these toilets the tank is concealed in the wall and a steel mounting system in the wall holds the bowl well above the floor. Cleaning is a snap. Do they cost more? Yes. Quite a bit more, and retrofits can be difficult. But consider a lifetime of nasty toilet cleaning made easy (and with improved sanitation).
So it costs more. I know. But I see so many places in homes where the owners have decided to invest in a feature that however wonderful it may be, can’t match the beauties of an easy to clean bathroom. In new construction or a remodel, if the decision is between a toilet that’s easy to clean and, for example, a wet bar in my main living area I’ll ditch the wet bar every time.
And what about the sink? Once again, many sinks look as if they were designed to fly. So many unnecessary curves and projections have been added. Right off the top they are much harder to maintain and clean. Also, have you ever noticed that the depth of your sink bowl doesn’t seem sufficient and that when you wash your face or hands as much water splashes onto the surrounding counter and floor as actually goes in the sink.
This is a very easy problem to solve: get a larger sink with a deeper bowl, or perhaps just a bowl sink itself. Avoiding years of cleaning splashes and stains from the surrounding countertop is worth the somewhat greater cost for a good sink (versus builder’s grade).
But the worst culprit on the sink is the faucet itself. Go take a look at your bathroom sink. Take a look at the actual faucet spout where the water comes out - how far is that from the back of the sink itself? Go ahead, take a look. I’ll wait…
**************************
OK - how far? I’ve seen new and not inexpensive construction where the faucet spout is so near the rear of the sink that even average sized hands will not be able rinse without bumping into sink bowl. Here we are, trying to wash our hands and we keep bumping into the sink bowl; likely one of the least sanitary places in our homes. At the same time we are almost unavoidably splashing water on the sink and countertop. More mess to cleanup!
And yet, it is so easy to get a faucet with a spout that comes far enough into the bowl to avoid this problem. Do these faucets cost more? Perhaps, but only marginally so, and really, clean hands are worth something these days, right?
The controller handles of many faucet fixtures are also a problem. In a typical sink there are three holes: one each for hot and cold water controllers and one for the faucet body itself. Often builders place these parts so close together that once installed cleaning between the water controllers and the faucet body is very difficult. Really, cleaning anywhere around the fixture can be difficult. It’s as if builders have either never cleaned a bathroom, or that they simply don’t care. Some builders select fixtures that house all of the faucet mechanics in a small rectangular box (escutcheon) that sits on top of the sink back. In this instance all of the issues associated with cleaning are simply moved to the top of this small box, and a new problem of cleaning where the box meets the sink is introduced. And, arguably these boxes can be pretty ugly.
As a baseline, fixtures should be picked that have adequate space between the various pieces to promote ease of cleaning. But going a step further, what if we used a type of faucet and controller that didn’t even connect to the sink? What if we could control the water with more thoughtfully designed controllers? No problem. It’s easy to find faucets and controllers that are wall mounted. Even better are faucet fixtures that locate the hot and cold water controllers immediately adjacent to the faucet spout: your hands never need to leave the center of the bowl. Imagine how much easier this will be to clean. Does it cost more? Yes, but again, consider years of cleaning the sink (or not cleaning, a rather disgusting option) versus that snazzy wet bar that some of your neighbors seem to have.
In the end, perhaps you can’t afford a wall mounted toilet. But you can certainly select one that will be easier to clean than some of the “aerodynamic” models that many builders seem to favor. Perhaps you can’t afford a wall-mounted faucet for your sink. But again, you can afford to get a faucet spout that extends far enough into the sink bowl to enable the water to splash into the sink rather than the countertop and floor. And as with the toilet, you don’t really need an “aerodynamic" sink with unnecessary and difficult to clean streamlining.
While I’ve known people who get a kick out of cleaning, I’ve never known anyone who said something like, “Oh golly! Today I get to clean the bathroom! I’m so excited.”
Architecture may not be able to remove all of the unpleasant aspects of home maintenance, but shouldn’t it at least make them a bit easier to accomplish? In the case of bathrooms, shouldn’t the area be as hygienic as possible?
Architecture is not just the “big moves” that many people associate with it. For example, architecture is not just about large swirls of titanium formed to resemble frozen music. It’s not just about the grand gestures of scale and materiality.
Each time we wash our hands we are engaging architecture. Each time we clean any space in our homes or workplaces, we are interfacing with design. Yes, even as we clean our bathroom architecture has the possibility of making our daily lives better.
Is this too much to expect? In many ways it seems to me that these “small” design moves will contribute more the quality of our lives than will the grand gestures, however wonderful they may be. Grand gestures may be terrific, but really, shouldn’t Architecture be for all of us?
Picture yourself… You’ve just finished an exhausting but ultimately satisfying month at your new job. So many late nights, early mornings, and lost weekends, but hey, you’re young, energetic, and single. What else would you have been doing? Not insignificantly, you got the project out on schedule and your supervisor thanked you for your hard work. Wow! Actually gratitude - a new experience. Still, you quietly wonder how often future projects like this will take over your life… But never mind - for now it’s Saturday! Time to celebrate with a little down time. An entire free weekend to yourself.
An entire free weekend… free.
So it must be time to do laundry and clean your house. As you survey the wreck that your home has become you decide to start with your least favorite task: cleaning your bathroom. No problem. Unlike some bathrooms you’ve had in the past, this one is a snap to clean. Cleaning the floor around your wall-mounted toilet is easy. Just a quick mopping. The toilet itself is more or less one smooth piece. Easy to wipe down. The sink? No problem. Your faucet spout extends well into the sink and the water controls are located near the spout. The sink itself is a one piece bowl mounted from below.
The same story continues elsewhere; the shower and countertop, all easy to clean. The whole task goes so fast that you realize you’re going to have time to go for a bike ride with friends in the afternoon. You wonder, why did cleaning the bathroom take so long in the past and why did I hate it so much?
**************************
Pause now for a moment and consider your bathroom. I’ll bet your toilet is floor-mounted and has numerous projections on the exterior bowl that serve no apparent function. Sometimes when I look at toilets it strikes me that the designer was trying to give the toilet and aerodynamic quality; almost as if it could fly. And the area where the toilet meets the floor? Ugh! Depending on how long the toilet has been in place, the sealant joint may have long since given up the ghost, or worse yet, someone may have come back and poorly applied a huge line of new sealant in an effort to fill the gap. It seems that the only hope of ever cleaning it will be to get a toothbrush and intently work in small patches. Lacking that effort it’s easier to just ignore it and move on. Ignore it long enough and after a while the gunk becomes permanent. And how about cleaning behind the toilet? Ugh. Who came up with this system?
And yet, all of this can be avoided with a well designed wall-hung toilet. With these toilets the tank is concealed in the wall and a steel mounting system in the wall holds the bowl well above the floor. Cleaning is a snap. Do they cost more? Yes. Quite a bit more, and retrofits can be difficult. But consider a lifetime of nasty toilet cleaning made easy (and with improved sanitation).
So it costs more. I know. But I see so many places in homes where the owners have decided to invest in a feature that however wonderful it may be, can’t match the beauties of an easy to clean bathroom. In new construction or a remodel, if the decision is between a toilet that’s easy to clean and, for example, a wet bar in my main living area I’ll ditch the wet bar every time.
And what about the sink? Once again, many sinks look as if they were designed to fly. So many unnecessary curves and projections have been added. Right off the top they are much harder to maintain and clean. Also, have you ever noticed that the depth of your sink bowl doesn’t seem sufficient and that when you wash your face or hands as much water splashes onto the surrounding counter and floor as actually goes in the sink.
This is a very easy problem to solve: get a larger sink with a deeper bowl, or perhaps just a bowl sink itself. Avoiding years of cleaning splashes and stains from the surrounding countertop is worth the somewhat greater cost for a good sink (versus builder’s grade).
But the worst culprit on the sink is the faucet itself. Go take a look at your bathroom sink. Take a look at the actual faucet spout where the water comes out - how far is that from the back of the sink itself? Go ahead, take a look. I’ll wait…
**************************
OK - how far? I’ve seen new and not inexpensive construction where the faucet spout is so near the rear of the sink that even average sized hands will not be able rinse without bumping into sink bowl. Here we are, trying to wash our hands and we keep bumping into the sink bowl; likely one of the least sanitary places in our homes. At the same time we are almost unavoidably splashing water on the sink and countertop. More mess to cleanup!
And yet, it is so easy to get a faucet with a spout that comes far enough into the bowl to avoid this problem. Do these faucets cost more? Perhaps, but only marginally so, and really, clean hands are worth something these days, right?
The controller handles of many faucet fixtures are also a problem. In a typical sink there are three holes: one each for hot and cold water controllers and one for the faucet body itself. Often builders place these parts so close together that once installed cleaning between the water controllers and the faucet body is very difficult. Really, cleaning anywhere around the fixture can be difficult. It’s as if builders have either never cleaned a bathroom, or that they simply don’t care. Some builders select fixtures that house all of the faucet mechanics in a small rectangular box (escutcheon) that sits on top of the sink back. In this instance all of the issues associated with cleaning are simply moved to the top of this small box, and a new problem of cleaning where the box meets the sink is introduced. And, arguably these boxes can be pretty ugly.
As a baseline, fixtures should be picked that have adequate space between the various pieces to promote ease of cleaning. But going a step further, what if we used a type of faucet and controller that didn’t even connect to the sink? What if we could control the water with more thoughtfully designed controllers? No problem. It’s easy to find faucets and controllers that are wall mounted. Even better are faucet fixtures that locate the hot and cold water controllers immediately adjacent to the faucet spout: your hands never need to leave the center of the bowl. Imagine how much easier this will be to clean. Does it cost more? Yes, but again, consider years of cleaning the sink (or not cleaning, a rather disgusting option) versus that snazzy wet bar that some of your neighbors seem to have.
In the end, perhaps you can’t afford a wall mounted toilet. But you can certainly select one that will be easier to clean than some of the “aerodynamic” models that many builders seem to favor. Perhaps you can’t afford a wall-mounted faucet for your sink. But again, you can afford to get a faucet spout that extends far enough into the sink bowl to enable the water to splash into the sink rather than the countertop and floor. And as with the toilet, you don’t really need an “aerodynamic" sink with unnecessary and difficult to clean streamlining.
While I’ve known people who get a kick out of cleaning, I’ve never known anyone who said something like, “Oh golly! Today I get to clean the bathroom! I’m so excited.”
Architecture may not be able to remove all of the unpleasant aspects of home maintenance, but shouldn’t it at least make them a bit easier to accomplish? In the case of bathrooms, shouldn’t the area be as hygienic as possible?
Architecture is not just the “big moves” that many people associate with it. For example, architecture is not just about large swirls of titanium formed to resemble frozen music. It’s not just about the grand gestures of scale and materiality.
Each time we wash our hands we are engaging architecture. Each time we clean any space in our homes or workplaces, we are interfacing with design. Yes, even as we clean our bathroom architecture has the possibility of making our daily lives better.
Is this too much to expect? In many ways it seems to me that these “small” design moves will contribute more the quality of our lives than will the grand gestures, however wonderful they may be. Grand gestures may be terrific, but really, shouldn’t Architecture be for all of us?