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Public Restroom for Anyone

Partly shared and partly separate
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When entering this restroom, in front of you stretching to the left and right, is a row of mostly ordinary toilet stalls, each allowing ordinary (or a little better than ordinary) privacy. One feature these toilets should have is a double-seat. That is, while a home toilet usually has a lift-able lid over a lift-able seat, here there are two seats, the upper lift-able seat being designed for children. There should also be something like a stair-step to make it easier for little kids to access the toilet.

If you turn around you will see the wall lined with mirrors and sinks and soap-dispensers and hand-dryers, and even a few diaper-changing stations. These will all occupy a range of heights above the floor.

At the far left and right are passageways leading behind the row of toilet stalls. One is marked marked for males and one is marked for females. If you walk around, you will see a solid dividing wall between the two areas. The backs of the toilet stalls in the other room make another wall.

In the male area are ordinary urinals, in the female area there can be tables and chairs and more mirrors, for doing nose-powdering, and even a bidet stall or three.

Of course, the place is well-ventilated, and some of all those stalls, in the restroom as a whole, will be suitable for use by those in wheelchairs.

----
Added Jan29, 2008

To reduce graffiti, the walls of the place (including stall walls) should have a surface of some non-stick coating, like "Silverstone" (a registered trademark), but not necessarily that exact one. If it is considered desirable, then inside the walls can be a layer of sound-absorbing material.

Vernon, Jan 26 2008

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       I have never understood why they are called restrooms in the US.   

       The ones proposed here are so luxurious you could indeed have a rest in one.
DenholmRicshaw, Jan 26 2008
  

       //I have never understood why they are called restrooms in the US.// they're too prudish to call them toilets
xenzag, Jan 26 2008
  

       This is very baked in many of the more civilised European countries, and is increasingly found in the UK.   

       Also, if I remember rightly, the loos in Ally McBeal were unisex.   

       <psst - xenzag - calling them "toilets" marks you out as being - how can I put this delicately? - common.>
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 26 2008
  

       WC are the initials for the original toilet, known as the Water Closet. As for me being "common" come on - [MB] I was born in a "two-up, two-down" with an outside toilet. Common as muck me.
xenzag, Jan 26 2008
  

       "//I have never understood why they are called restrooms in the US.// they're too prudish to call them toilets"
The restroom is the name of the space which may (or may not) contain the porcelain facility called a toilet. I go to the restroom (or bathroom) to use the toilet (or maybe just to wash my hands). Prudishness doesn't enter into it, but thanks for asking!
  

       Aren't unisex restrooms baked? I'm sure it was a fixture on "Ally McBeal".
phoenix, Jan 26 2008
  

       //the porcelain facility called a toilet//
//a fixture on "Ally McBeal".//
I respectfully refer M. Phoenix to an earlier annotation.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 26 2008
  

       fathers with girl children certainly have a problem.   

       yeah, MB - you give the mighty phoenix due respect!
po, Jan 26 2008
  

       I've no idea why, but my closet once had a sink in it, the knobs remain. Turning them gives "water closet" a whole new meaning.
Spacecoyote, Jan 26 2008
  

       [UnaBubba] That's a little far-fetched: how on earth could the previous occupant have known that [SpaceCoyote] would buy the house?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 26 2008
  

       "I respectfully refer M. Phoenix to an earlier annotation."
I'm reasonably certain you edited that in.
  

       "...you give the mighty phoenix due respect!"
I'm reasonably certain you edited that in.
phoenix, Jan 27 2008
  

       I posted this because I haven't happened to encounter such a facility here in the USA. And while I actually have been in Europe, that was in the mid-1960s, and I don't recall seeing any such restroom then/there, either. I'm not surprised that they exist now, though, what with social evolution being more advanced over there than here.   

       And YES, this is somewhat fancy; I'm not sure ANY public restroom in the USA has a bidet. Therefore, just to ensure that I've made myself clear on this point (and to remind some of you of yet another name for the building), I now formally specify that its structure should be made of brick.
Vernon, Jan 27 2008
  

       I'm not aware of any public bath in the US containing a bidet, either, but then I'm not part of the target audience.   

       I always saw the unisex bathrooms around the Mediterranean as sort of a compromise between "the law says I have to have a facility" and "I'm too cheap to put in one for each gender". That many consist of little more than a hole in the ground does little to disabuse me of that opinion, but maybe I'm just not getting into the spirit.   

       Anyway, if I understand correctly you're talking about a communal anteroom that leads to separate facilities?   

       "I now formally specify that its structure should be made of brick."
I think a brick bidet would be uncomfortable, but probably better than I-64 traffic during rush hour!
phoenix, Jan 27 2008
  

       In many parts of Scandianvia, there are communal saunas, which can be somewhat disconcerting to visitors. Likewise, in Japan, there are (or were) communal bath houses.   

       It's all a matter of social customs and acceptability.   

       In private houses there are no separate male and female facilities. On aircraft and trains, where space is similarly at a premium, the same situation exists. This leaves the idea of entirely separate male and female facilities in public places looking slightly anachronistic to the objective viewer.
8th of 7, Jan 27 2008
  

       I think communal public saunas are normally swimsuit-wearing locales, at least nowadays, even in Scandinavia. Domestic family saunas are invariably nude, and there isn't the same hang-up about it that you'd get in many US/UK families.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2008
  

       Many years ago in France, I noticed a public toilet with three signs.   

       Dames, Hommes, Urinoirs
DenholmRicshaw, Jan 27 2008
  

       Heh, [phoenix], I was talking about the structure of the building being brick, not the interior facilities.   

       The common anteroom has some immediate facilities available for either sex, the toilet stalls. I am aware of complaints by women that women's restrooms never seem to have enough toilets. Men can manage with fewer toilets because of the urinals they can use, and architects who are mostly male appear to be ignoring the special needs of women in this case, by typically putting only the same number of toilets in the ladies' room. So, part of the idea here is make more toilets available to the women who enter this facility.   

       [UnaBubba], many animals are typically vulnerable to predators during the elimination of some body wastes. I'm quite sure that an innate desire for privacy is directly related to that. Of course, a society can magnify and/or distort that biological thing any way it wishes. (And certainly this has happened in the USA, since so many idiots here seem to think that the natural human body is something other than 100% pure animal.)
Vernon, Jan 28 2008
  

       //I have never understood why they are called restrooms in the US.//
In classier places (nice hotels, restaurants) and sometimes even big dept. stores, there are actually couches and chairs in the first room including mirrors, vanity tables, etc. One can *rest* and then use the toilet or not.
xandram, Jan 28 2008
  

       Take your idea and cover it in shit, thats what it will look like after being exposed to the public.
Antegrity, Jan 29 2008
  

       They care in yours? Give me a trough to piss in. Why on earth would you want to hang out in a place where people crap?. Oh the wonderful sounds and smells of a public bathroom. Lets sit around and hear people farting and pooping, my favorite is the double flush, man that must have been a huge turd. That looks like a nice comfy couch, i wonder how many crap molecules have found their way onto that one.   

       For ally mcbeal taking a dump was second only to puking up that diet snapple she had for lunch.
Antegrity, Jan 29 2008
  

       Does it have a mini bar?
vincevincevince, Jan 29 2008
  

       [Antegrity], I've tweaked the main text a bit. A couple things you pointed out should have been previously addressed, so, thank you.
Vernon, Jan 29 2008
  

       //I have never understood why they are called restrooms in the US.//   

       'cause a 'bathroom' typically has a shower or tub, and 'loo' sounds like a Dr. Seuss word or the rarely used (and rather delightfully silly sounding) parting word 'toodeloo!,' I'm not sure I'd want to share a facility with women. Do you know what they talk about in there?
RayfordSteele, Jan 29 2008
  

       Thag knew he had to go and stopped walking. His deposit would readily give away their position to the local predators. Galga, his mate, knew his predicament and quickly began to dig with her oyster shell. the ground was hard and progress slow. Thag was not going to make it before Galga finished the hole....he suddenly, let go.   

       The steamy aroma wafted on the gentle afternoon breeze. In less than ten heartbeats, the smell drifted through Bog Monsters nostrils..."Mmmm...human..." he thought..."Bog Monster not have human for long time." his sluggardly mind tried to recall the flavor..."Bog Monster think human taste like chicken...but not sure. Bog Monster go...Bog Monster hungry."   

       Thag and Galga ran...as soon as he was finished....they knew to run down wind as much as possible....The predator's were "yyippiing" in eager anticipation. If Thag and Galga were discovered, it would be the end of them...they ran accordingly. In the ever increasing volume of the distant yipping...there was one that frightened Thag more than all the other..the "Whoosh-Whuff" sounds of the Bog Monster....If any thing could catch them, Bog Monster would....they ran faster...   

       Bog Monster diverted from the scent trail, turning suddenly, with dim memories of the short cut path that would head off the humans, he swept around the canyon wall, Closing the distance...only a few more minutes and he would taste the human again....His mouth wattered, saliva dripping in sweet anticipation...   

       He was already wondering, "Bog Monster like crispy...but then regular is good, too." Which to choose confused him....but his confusion was not to last much longer....
Blisterbob, Jan 29 2008
  

       [Blisterbob], they're dead shortly after the part where you wrote: "Thag and Galga ran...as soon as he was finished....they knew to run down wind as much as possible" --because you had already written: "the smell drifted through Bog Monsters nostrils".   

       For that last-quoted thing to have happened, Bog Monster must be downwind of the humans, so if the humans run downwind, they are running directly toward Bog Monster.
Vernon, Jan 30 2008
  

       //target audience// hee hee
po, Jan 30 2008
  

       Note that Thag doesn't need to run faster than Bog Monster, only faster than Galga. (And vice versa, of course.)
angel, Jan 30 2008
  
      
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