Out of sight

Alan Millin.

Alan Millin (MSc. CEng FIHEEM) gets up close and personal with an issue that, for most, is up close and personal.

I’m sure many readers have come across public conveniences in other countries where women and men are asked to share the same small piece of real estate.

In those countries where such arrangements are common, the local population is usually ok with everything, while visitors may be a bit surprised and possibly even slightly embarrassed.

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These conveniences have a variety of monikers too: bathroom, restroom, comfort room, loo, to mention a few. There are of course many other terms and, in fact, the French also have a name for the facility that leaves little to the imagination.

But the various names used by people may present insights into the use of the facilities for Facilities Managers. Do people use the facilities as bathrooms? Certainly we may see them used for ablution purposes where no dedicated ablution facility exists.

People may indeed go in for a rest or to take comfort. For those of you familiar with some of the slang terms I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.…

So for FM’s, toilets can present some unique challenges. First, they have to be cleaned. It helps a lot if they smell pleasant too.

But in the Middle East it is difficult to imagine women having to walk through the men’s section of a public toilet to get to the ladies section.

The ‘Ladies’ and ‘Gents’ are separate facilities and probably everyone is relieved—please forgive the pun—that this is the case.

Why then, given the cultural sensitivities existing throughout the region, do some designers repeatedly ignore the very basic ‘line of sight’ issue? We find the same issue even in relatively new multi-tenanted office facilities too.

In a prestigious Dubai office building, constructed in 2007, ladies visiting their toilet have, if they are unfortunate enough to pass the Gents at the wrong moment, a direct line of sight into the Gents. Not a pretty sight for them really is it?