History of Toilet Design
Few household items we use so often receive as little attention as the toilet bowl. It’s an item people pick from the sanitary equipment catalogue in a rather unemotional manner, and don't engage with it more than necessary. All the furniture and equipment in the house have undergone numerous transformations, a feat the toilets cannot boast to the same extent. Bathrooms today are more beautiful and cleaner places than ever before, yet any changes related to them happen slowly. It is quite astonishing considering that the toilet is a piece of equipment that connects our digestive tract to the pipeline network of entire cities and countries. However, given that history is long and people use toilets several times a day, this article will strive to cover only the brightest and darkest moments of toilet history.
Archaeological finds suggest that ancient civilizations had a fairly developed awareness of the issues surrounding excreta disposal. For example, at the Skara Brae site in Scotland, a village from the Neolithic period that looks like the Flintstones family has abandon it two days ago, there are rooms resembling toilets. The wealthy ancient Egyptians had luxurious bathrooms with stone toilets, while those outside the pharaonic circle managed with wooden variations. Beneath them were sand tanks, emptied by slaves. While the Egyptians urinated on sand, the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley and the Minoan civilization of Crete had drainage systems and water tanks. The magic of the cities of the Indus Valley, such as Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro, lies underground, in a network of channels and terracotta pipes that make up an exceptionally advanced seware system. Around 3000 years BCE, every house had a flush toilet and a shower with running water, which was a symbol of soul purification. Their cities did not have divine temples - the temples were the drains, cisterns, springs, and baths.
The Romans, our farthest toilet ancestors within the Common Era, adopted some of these technologies. Under a row of twelve stone toilet seats was a channel with running water that carried away waste. If we add partition walls and a slightly better sewage system, these places don't differ much from today's toilets. The drastic difference lies in their manner of use. The ancient Romans did not consider using the restroom as something intimate or private. In those times toilets were communal places. Using toilet and having a pleasant chat were inseparable activities. They paid attention to the interior design of these spaces, so some of them, as discovered in Pompeii, had walls adorned with frescoes and mosaics, sculptures in the corners, and marble seats. What is the most difficult to imagine from today's perspective is the channel in front of the sitting area through which clean water flowed. When a Roman finished his or her business, instead of reaching for toilet paper, they would use a tersorium or xylospongium. The xylospongium, or ‘sponge on a stick’, was a kind of toilet brush that was first soaked in a stream and then used to wipe the anal area. And no — not every Roman carried their own xylospongium; they were shared toilet accessories as we share a toilet brush today.
This lack of discomfort in the presence of strangers stretched far back into history. In the royal palace of Hampton Court in London, there existed a “great house of easement" that could accommodate fourteen courtiers. English King Charles II in the 17th century would take two friends with him every time he went to the toilet, and in the home of the first American president, George Washington, a WC with three seats side by side has been preserved.
The Roman liberal approach to waste disposal and advanced civil engineering was interrupted by the Middle Ages. The most common form of toilet at that time was simply holes in the ground with a wooden seat over them. There are several exceptional examples, mostly associated with the clergy, who built stone and wooden sanitary facilities above rivers or near the seashore, so flushing occurred with the help of the tide. Mediaeval castles often had stone seats with openings at the top of towers, from where waste would continue its journey by free fall.
A larger problem than earthen holes was that, due to the lack of a sufficient number of sanitary facilities, it became normal to relieve oneself anywhere. In grandiose places like Versailles — which boasted that it has as many as three hundred toilets — corridors, staircases, or any other place where you happened to be alone, were much more frequently used for disposal purposes, while chamber pots were simply emptied out of the window. In 1715, a decree was issued at the palace assuring residents and visitors that the corridors would be cleaned of excrement once a week. Versailles was not a shinny place.
In the 16th century, several known and surely many more unknown enthusiasts attempted to patent toilets with running water, but with many failures along the way. For example, it would happen that the toilet content would spray in the opposite direction from what the user hoped for. Those patents, in the form we know it today, were perfected by an Englishman with the fitting name — Thomas Crapper in the late 19th century. He designed a water tank placed above the bowl, which was activated by pulling a hanging chain, or what we now call the flush tank. Crapper became wealthy and famous, but contrary to common belief, the English word "crap" does not come from his surname.
Since then, changes to toilets and other auxiliary parts have been extremely slow, and almost the entire 20th century passed without anything revolutionary happening. One reason is the cultural barriers that stand in the way of accepting something new. Austrian designer Viktor Papanek, in his 1970s book "Design for the Real World", states that the average American buys a new car every two and a half years, a new suit every nine months, and a new refrigerator every ten years. Considering the increase and acceleration of goods consumption over the past 50 years, these purchases are even more frequent today. However, in contrast, that same consumer never buys a new toilet bowl unless there is damage or a bathroom renovation.
Another problem pointed out by the Austrian designer, which has not been significantly regulated to this day, is the water consumption from the flush tank. An adult's bladder can hold up to 400 mL of liquid. This means that in the morning, during the first visit to the bathroom, we release 200 to 300 mL of liquid into the toilet. Then, we flush away these 300 ml with 3 to 6 litres of clean drinking water. In the early 1970s, an attempt was made to address this problem by suggesting that people put one or two bricks in their tanks to reduce the amount of water flowing through. Papanek suggested a toilet design in which each person could adjust the amount of water to their quantitative and qualitative needs. However, this proposal was also rejected. The designer's client, who made a living producing toilet bowls, described the proposal as "tasteless."
On the other hand, when we finish using the bathroom, we (hopefully) wash our hands with soap and water, which is still clean enough to be used for flushing the toilet. There are some systems developed that fill the tank with water used for hands or face washing, but they are not widely implemented in households. Rainwater tanks could also be used for this purpose, just like the ancient Romans did. Besides having tanks for rainwater used for sewage purposes, Romans also had the goddess of sewers. The next time a clogged toilet surprises you, try seeking help from the goddess Cloacina (named after Cloaca Maxima). If you're not sure how to start the prayer, help yourself to Lord Byron's poem:
O Cloacina, Goddess of this place,
Look on thy suppliants with a smiling face.
Soft, yet cohesive let their offerings flow,
Not rashly swift nor insolently slow.
The cleanliness of water in regularly maintained toilets is also evidenced by a study conducted in Florida, where the water quality in the toilets of local fast-food restaurants was compared to the quality of their ice in refreshing beverages. In the book "At Home", by author Bill Bryson, it is stated that the results of study surprisingly went into favour of toilet bowls, as the water in them was cleaner in 70% of cases than the water found in the ice. Mhm.
When travelling to countries like Germany, the Netherlands, or the USA, we will notice that the design of the interior of the toilet bowl differs. We distinguish between European, German, and American types of toilets, which reflect cultural differences in their design. In the European type of toilet bowl, the front wall is rounded, while the ‘pool’ with a low water level is in the back. This allows our waste to disappear from our puritan sight as quickly as possible. The complete opposite of this is the German type of toilet bowl, in which the water ‘pool’ is placed in the front, while the back has a horizontal surface unofficially called "lay and display." This type of toilet bowl is a relic from a time when part of personal hygiene and health care involved the daily examination of one's own poo to identify potential health problems through visual changes. The third type of toilet bowl is the one which numerous film characters were almost suffocated in during the fight. The water level in them is much higher than in European toilet bowls, and the main purpose of this stagnant water is to immediately isolate all waste products from the clean air and prevent the spread of odours. While European and German toilet bowls have flushing systems of water coming out of the rim, the American type uses a suction system, consuming significant amounts of water, up to 11 litres per flush. However, most modern European flush toilets today offer a dual flushing system, allowing the choice of a full or half tank flush.
Throughout the 20th century, several toilet ambassadors emerged in the fields of art, design, and architecture. One advocate for removing the stigma from toilet equipment was avant-garde conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp, with his attempt to exhibit a urinal as a fountain, or ready-made art. Just as people were ashamed of toilet bowls in private, the same was true in public life, so the urinal was not exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in Paris in 1917.
Le Corbusier’s apartment in Paris
Le Corbusier considered toilet bowls "one of the most beautiful objects produced by industry.” In his apartment in Paris, he placed a bidet between the bathroom and the bed, which his wife used to cover with kitchen towels when guests came over. In his works and books, he often addressed toilets and pipes as an important element of living that had not seen sufficient progress. Architects Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet, in their masterpiece, the Maison de Verre in Paris, placed a bidet in a prominent position in the room, covered only by a semi-transparent partition. The reason for this is probably the fact that the house's owner at the time, was a gynaecologist with a practice in the house, but the boldness and transparency of the space are hardly imaginable even by today's standards (or especially by today's standards). Modern architects used toilet elements as a means of challenging traditional morality.
Maison de Verre, Paris
In today's era, including the past few decades, no significant changes in the world of toilets have happened. According to the March 2024 report by the World Health Organisation, 1.5 billion people worldwide lack regular access to basic sanitation services, such as private toilets or latrines. Of these, 419 million people relieve themselves in places such as open gutters, bushes, or bodies of water. If you recall the Romans from the beginning of the story, the xylospongium and a flowing stream don't seem like such a bad idea anymore. Research on handwashing frequency, toilet cleaning after use, and general maintenance is too extensive for the scope of this blog post. However, as we conclude, it might be time to consider how we can improve one of our most important pieces of equipment, aside from simply having a soft-close toilet seat.