| Masterplan > Stivichall > New Toilets > Design Process |
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Design Process To begin with, we conducted an investigation looking at the existing school toilets and noting down what's good and not-so-good about them. In summary: the soap looks like bogeys and smells horrid; the locks don't work - or aren't reliable; the floors are always wet; paper towels and tissues are stuck to the ceiling; people hang on sinks and swing on them which pulls them off the wall; boys urinate in the floor drains; children use paper towels to cover door handles etc as protection against germs because the taps don't always work; there's no ventilation; the gaps below and above the cubicles are too big - people can peer or climb over. (Actually those things are all the not-so-good ones, the only positive thing anyone had to say was that they quite liked the green colour of one set of cubicles...) We made a list of public toilets that are ok - we like the toilets in Frankie & Bennie's because they play 'Speak Italian' tapes; we like the sinks in McDonalds where you put your hands in and it gives you water, then soap, water, then hot air; we like the Skydome cinema toilets where there are mirrors opposite each other so you are reflected millions of times. We did a bit of research and consultation. We looked at some books on public toilet design and we handed out some questions on cards to other users of the school toilets, and to the cleaners, caretakers and budget holders. We wanted to know what colours and themes for decoration would be popular or unpopular. And we wanted to know whether there were any colours that were more difficult to keep clean. We also wanted to know whether we could have air hand driers instead of paper towels and carex blue soap instead of the green bogey soap. The answers we got informed our designs. We decided on themes and then worked on the design drawings in small groups laying out our ideas. We decided to use a cut out style for the designs on the walls rather than too much detailing, and decided to add interest with the mirrors - which would be cut out of mirrored stainless steel rather than glass. Once our ideas were fairly well developed, we made scale models (1:20) of our designs so that Janet (our artist from Talking Birds) could present them to Mr Kumar (our architect), Mr Rose (our head teacher) and Mr Mitchell from the City Council. Of course, they loved our designs and have worked out how to make them happen. And our models have been on display in school so that everyone else can check them out! [<Back to previous page] |
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