I’m (almost) always a supporter of ideas that conserve energy or resources. Theoretically then, I’d be for this minimalist bathroom idea show below, made with a minimum of materials, it looks like something from IKEA.
Only one problem…the dual use design is just a wee bit problematic:
Yes that’s right, it’s the eco pee n’ wash urinal combo hand wash stand.
From “Yanko Design” who writes:
Whoa! Men To Pee and Wash In The Same Stand!
I’m not a man so I really don’t know how comfortable you guys are going to be with this thought…peeing and washing hands in the same urinal stand! What Designer Yeongwoo Kim has done is incorporated the wash basin just above the spot you take aim to pee. The reason cited is that you’ll save a water flush cycle, coz when you rinse your hand after the job (I hope you guys do that!), the same gray water can be used to cleanse the urinal basin. Tell me, how many of you guys will be comfortable with this? For once, my opinion doesn’t count, but I do find it funny!
Eco Urinal is an iF Concept Design 2010 winning entry!
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Well good for that, ew.
My question back is this: Since equality is important in our society today, please show me the water saving design for women’s restrooms.
Oh, no pee n’ wash design for that? Focus groups said Eww! ? Check.
I really don’t want to save water that much, and I really don’t think anyone else does either. Modern sanitation is one of mankind’s greatest health achievements. Let’s not mess with success. Plus, I don’t think the glass would survive long in a public restroom.
I think this is a FAIL blog candidate. Like George Costanza’s travel dilemma , faced with one of these on a road trip I wouldn’t go to the bathroom the entire trip.
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I have had some good stuff from IKEA and certainly not like this. My daughter tried the earth toilet idea but gave up, I think smell had something to do with it, and now has two conventional bathrooms in her house. Some conventional things are there because they have been tried and tested over many decades and they work.
Total fail as a bathroom. Not a bath in sight. It might work as a rather unpleasant version of a men’s toilet, though.
What if you just wanted to wash your hands……
Let’s assume the last three users didn’t pee on their hands, and forgot to wash up – I’d say by the time you step up to innocently wash your hands, you get a face full of stink.
So, you turn on the water and step back while holding your breath …. 2 gallons of water later, you step up once again to wash your hands… Efficiency down the drain.
I’d be all for the independent sinks with gray water recycling to flush the urinals, but not the combination.
Everyone knows the dirtiest item we all interact with is the……..phone, be it home, office or mobile. When I worked for Renault in the UK we had the usual cleaning staff, but we had a special lady who’d come around evey week and steralise all the office phones. Never saw that at health insurance companies like BUPA (One of the highest concentration of smokers in confined, London based offices, I have ever experienced).
To me, this looks like a practical, attractive design.
Minor design quibble:
They drain through the floor? In nearly all instances where a urinal gets installed, that’ll involve going through a concrete slab. Also, I see no provision for a trap, that extra twist as seen under a sink that retains water (fluids?) to keep sewer gas from flowing up into the fixture. Thus that’ll have to be engineered into the slab in many circumstances, such as when the drain pipes are encased in the concrete, or placed under the slab.
It doesn’t matter how shiny and/or “eco-friendly” it is, this design will not be loved in the construction trade.
Don’t be so squeamish. Peeing in a urinal, and then washing your hands in a separate sink is the same as peeing in a urinal, then washing your hands in a separate sink just above the urinal. What’s so “ewww” about this?
Bum rap,
<B<Pamela Gray says:
August 30, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Why is it man became the hunter and could throw a spear into a beast several yards away but can’t hit the broad side of a barn when peeing? These things are WAYYYY to narrow for any man I’ve cleaned up after.<B<
Sure there's some bad aiming but much of the mess is splash.
The most perfectly aimed stream splashes tiny drops over board.
The accumulation is as bad as total misses.
Urinal designs need a shape that minimizes splash.
This is not a new idea, as I remember a thesis being presented back in 1974 (UofT Engineering) that talked of urinal design that maximized splash-back and one design had a sink incorporated above that also flushed the urinal. The design above offers wonderful splash opportunity, so that is the big EWWW
If you use the urinal properly, meaning the stream hits the back wall, then you have virtually no splash. It’s when guys pee into the bottom, where there may be some water or a screen, that the splashing occurs. It’s all about bad parenting 😉
Sorry, that should have been minimized splash back by maximizing reflecting splash back into the urinal. There were many great diagrams of splash…with feet and legs a potential hazard with many designs
MD contributed:
August 30, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Actually, women & men can be both catered to with this Australian invention-
http://www.royalflush.net.au/
I wonder how long before the water in the tank began to “ferment”. I am suspicious of any impure water standing for a period of time. Also, I use far less water when washing than is required to even partially fill a toilet tank.
The urinal is innovative, but I suspect that the same question of insufficient volume of wash water would arise. Of course, some urinals in use today (I’ve seen them at my old high school) are completely non-flush, depending on a glass-like finish to cause all the liquid to drain away, so they would probably get by fine with a low flow volume of wash water.
WUWT covers everything!
IanM
What about the drying function? I have this vision of wet dripping hands trying to zip up seeking a towel dispenser….
“Buffoon says:
August 31, 2010 at 7:15 am
Don’t be so squeamish. Peeing in a urinal, and then washing your hands in a separate sink is the same as peeing in a urinal, then washing your hands in a separate sink just above the urinal. What’s so “ewww” about this?”
One word, blockage. When the “urinal” is “backed up”, and it DOES happen, you’d have to wade though human effluent to wash your hands. Yes, ewwwww. I know what I am talking about, I cleaned drains, sewers, gutters and bogs for some weeks in between contracts in the 1990’s.
Actualy, I just noticed one serious flaw. Ok, reduced materials use (Although ceramic and steel can be recycled easily), sure, this is about conservation but this clearly isn’t about hygene. The most hygenic way to DRY hands after washing is with disposable paper towles. Don’t see any “technology” in the image relating to drying hands after peeing and then washing.
Seems to me the “water cycle” is a bit crossed.
Stupid design, it minimizes the opportunity to segregate black water (urine contaminated) from grey water (handwashing effluent).
Thinking back to my undergrad years, this thing would present some ghastly choices to drunk kids….”Which part do I puke in?”
My favorite urinal is off a ledge with a nice view.
This is one of those eco-myths that won’t go away. “Save Water” like once you use it, it’s gone. Let’s all forget about the water cycle.
Certainly when you have a drought like we did a few year back, you have to cut usage. You also need enough water processing capacity for the population. Looking on my city’s website, I see the cost of water is $2.25 / 1000 gallons. For a normal toilet, that is $0.0036 / flush. Some areas just don’t have enough fresh water supplies, but as long as you have the available supply and can process it, I say “use it”.
What about children? If I take my son to the urinal, do I have to hold him over it for him to wash his hands? If so, he may kick his feet into the urinal. Or, if there is a child size version how can I be sure someone didn’t pee in the hands washing area? Either way, this is a serious health concern to me.
why wash after peeing im careful and never get p on me i just wipe with paper towel. Besides the sinks in public restrooms are dirty enough as it is. after washing if you turn off the foscet you get many more germs then if you didnt wash at all. My advice only wash after number 2.
Ugh, 4th one down looks like Beaver Stadium’s men’s rooms. The gigantic trough where you are pinned between two other drunk dudes and just assaulted by splashback. I don’t ask for much, but individual porcelin with splash guards is the very foundation of modern society.
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As far as weird “waste disposal” units go, I just Googled this interesting gallery…
Would you gents mind also using a Vanish Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner large tablet to wash your hands? That would be convenient.
I say you gents because I guarantee you I will never use one of those.
Christopher says:
August 30, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Chistopher – please let me know where you are going – so I can avoid restrooms in those areas! 😉
The biggest problem with this design is that it wouldn’t last a day in any public restroom – unless it was seamless 16ga. stainless steel, including the sink pan.
The second biggest is back-splash from the rear panel – the floor around these would need constant cleaning (or be constantly disgusting); but I think that concaving the back & using vertical returns for splash guards would take care of it (but would sacrifice the crisp, orthagonal design)
The third is the position of the curb/backsplash guard – no toe space = sore back; my back hurts just looking at it. Fortunately, this also looks easily solvable by changing the angle of the back panel & moving it back 4” or so.
Using glass for the “sink” is a non-problem, safety-wise – there are lots of safety glasses that are stronger & less shatter-prone than the porcelain sinks wh. are often used. Getting water to sheet off the back of it is a simple detailing problem (but again, I can’t quickly think of any solution that wouldn’t encroach on the nicely minimalist design). Also, I don’t see any reason why the “sink” needs to be transparent, other than design coolness.
Anthony, the argument that modern sanitation is wonderful & we shouldn’t mess w/ success is a bit bogus, eh? I don’t think anyone would disagree, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be as efficient as possible about it. Whatever happened to trough urinals? I bet a trough urinal like the theater in the small town where I grew up had, updated w/ modern technology, would be the most efficient – except for maybe those waterless urinals. Ditto for the reverse gender discrimination (yeah, I saw the bulge in your cheek, but I’m being tongue-in-cheek pedantic, so there) – men’s & women’s restrooms are already gender-specific and after designing several thousand of them, I don’t recall hearing any complaints. The biggest restroom job I ever did was all of the them in the old Mile-High Stadium here in Denver. All of the women’s restrooms had female urinals – a sort of narrow toilet. We polled a lot of women about whether to keep them or not, and to a woman, the reaction was “Totally gross! You’ll never catch me on one of those things!” Out they went.
Other than those caveats, looks like a good, space-saving concept, if not fully-realized design. Building square footage is expensive, plumbing rough-ins are expensive, and getting enough restroom space while running the regulatory gauntlet is getting more challenging every year.
Not wash my hands after peeing? Eeewwwww! My mind is made up, so please don’t confuse me w/ any inconvenient facts about urine being sterile, or my genitals being cleaner than my face.
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Mosomoso – loved your post: “Pensive classes,” “gentrification belts.” Hee hee.
The design has a significant flaw. The angle of the urinal back will produce splash back. May save water but it’ll drive up your Dry Cleaning bills.
Note: they already make waterless urinals that thankfully one doesn’t need to wash ones hands in.