This book presents a series of scientific and artistic interventions that reflect on the evolution of toilets, both public and private, and on their many functions today, including as transgressive, informal meeting places, and spaces of forced social coexistence. Because of this transition from a two-dimensional item to an object, a room, and finally an environment—which often acts as a meeting place—the toilet offers a formidable tool to reflect on the current circumstances of interior architecture. The texts, largely written for the 2018 symposium Intimacy Exposed: Toilet, Bathroom, Restroom (organized by the Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève) present a practice-based study of the recent past of modernist technologies and a vision of the future of personal and collective practices regarding the realm of the toilet.

Contents

Javier F. Contreras, Roberto Zancan (Eds.) Intimacy Exposed: An Introduction to the Study of Toilets, Bathrooms and Restrooms

Alexandra Midal. Modern Plumbing

Philippe Rahm. Gradual Intimacy

Michael Jakob. On Displacement: Toilets are Very Special Places

Catherine Ince. A Bathroom for a Dancer

Mariana Siracusa. Hygiène Populaire (Nothing Fancy)

Joel Sanders. From Stud to Stalled! Social Equity and Public Restrooms

Andrés G. Pruñonosa. Down the Hall to the Right? A Glimpse into Le Corbusier’s Bathrooms

Josiane Imhasly. Spot On

Jérôme Nager. Stoned in the Bathroom: An Attempt to Control the Blue

Renaud Haerlingen. Rotor: Seven Tales about Toilets

Eva Gil (elii). Devices, Spaces, Actions and Places for Body Care. Elii’s Works Through Toilets

Bêka & Lemoine. Undressing Methodologies