Glorious Toilets: Designing Fluid Interaction (full vision)

Glorious Toilets: Designing Fluid Interaction SHAO Zhihang

September 2020

Shao Zhihang 8 September 2020

*ALL the title is link to the pages by clicking

Contents \

Introduction

02

Chapter 1 Spatial Boundaries in Public Toilets The Boundaries between Gents and Ladies The Boundaries around Men’s Urinals The Boundaries Concerning Sex in Public Toilets

06 06 08 10

Chapter 2 Cottaging: Transgression Leads to Balance The Excitement of Near Danger Destigmatizing Homosexuality and Public Toilets Cottaging Population Impersonal Sex Cottaging Behaviour Chapter Conclusion

12 14 16 18 20 22 26

Chapter 3 Grindr: Online Cruising The Needs of Queer Space The Locative Urban Life Online Cruising Behaviour Chapter Conclusion

28 32 38 44 48

Chapter 4 Manifesto: Labelling And Blurring

50

Chapter 5 Glorious Public Toilets: Design Proposal Montage: The Design Methodology Broadwick Street Public Toilets: Site Spatial Function Above-ground Pavilion Underground Toilets Chapter Conclusion

52 52 56 62 64 100 116

Chapter X At the End, at the Beginning

118

References

120 03

/ Introduction

When I introduced this “dirty” project to a friend, he asked me, do I really want to invite my parents to my final show? Honestly, I never introduce this project to with my family, because I am afraid the topic will be judged, but this is also why I am more curious about it. I come from a traditional Chinese upbringing and we have lots of taboos in our family, such as sex, LGBTQ culture and excretion. When I noticed the Vauxhall public urinal and public toilets sex culture in London, my curiosity about these “strange” things, which I had never openly talked about, made it impossible for me to look away.

My studies of public toilets and cottaging not only help me to directly face bodily functions like excretion and sex, but also lead me reassess the societal roles of toilets. Most importantly, this project made me rediscover the parts of myself that I thought were not perfect and accept them.

Starting from the perspectives of sociology and interior and spatial design, this project will describe the hidden boundaries in public toilets, then explore how transgressive homosexual activity in this small room defines private and public space, and how Grindr as an example of a locative dating app challenges established same-sex dating patterns. Chapter 5 presents design proposal of the Broadwick street public toilets.

All the research and designs what I completed this year seek a way to balance the demands of different populations in public toilets, witch is not achieve perfectly at the end. However, through making public toilets ‘glorious’, I hope this project could bring more discussion about alternative use of space within multiply cultures to contemporary society. Beyond a review of the changing hidden status of the toilet space in architecture, this study also provides a way into thinking about the symbiotic relationship between queer male identity, queer space, modern urbanism and the social implications of ubiquitous technology.

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Introduction \

Toilets graffiti Petrol station, Iceland December 2019

03

/ Chapter 1 Spatial Boundaries in Public Toilets

Public Toilet Tour in Soho When I grew focussed on public toilets, I chose Soho as my site and went to 'visit' every public toilet there in order to record the design details of the toilet.

I found that in the physical and mental space of public toilets, there are three interesting and valuable boundaries. The boundaries between gents and ladies, around men’s urinal, and about ‘cottaging’. Public toilets are only known as a space for defecation, but they are in fact a multi-use space which reflects the civilised form as well as definitions and views of gender in current society. Through the study of how people use this smallest and most private public space, we can better understand the transgressions of physical space, mental space, and norms of privacy.

04

Site walking \

1 Princes Street Automatic Public Toilet Closed

2 Great Marlborough Street Public Toilets Reopened June 2020 10:00am - 02:00am free

3 Broadwick Street Public Toilets 10:00am - 02:00am Free

4 Fixed Men’s Urinal Open most of time Max 4 people

5 Movable Men’s Urinal Fri. and Sat. Night Max 4 people 2 piece

6 Urilift Unknown

7 Leicester Square Public toilets Close after 11pm 50p

8 Movable Men’s Urinal Fri. and Sat. Night Max 4 people 1 piece

9 Movable Men’s Urinal Fri. and Sat. Night Max 8 people 2 piece 05

/ Background

1.1/ The Boundaries between Gents and Ladies

In the development of public toilets in London, the spatial distribution of public toilets evolved from non-gender to two separate spaces for men and women. This is not only a microcosm of the city of London, but also of human society's understanding of gender. The binary sexual structure of male and female is an important part of the social form upon which the development of human civilisation has always depended. That sturdy structure is being shaken by the emergence of new gender concepts. It is hard to argue that the third gender group is growing in number but there is no denying that their voices are getting louder. Public toilets, the most common binary gender space, are the first to be discussed. So how public toilets, cities, and human society copes with this transgressive third gender is critical. It is also crucial to find a balance between tradition and change, between differing genders, between idea and function.

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07

/ Background

1.2/ The Boundaries around Men’s Urinals

Europe provides an interesting picture of men’s urinals. Many European pubs and restaurants just have one unisex toilet but they still put an open urinal in the room. It is therefore common for women to walk right past men, busy at the urinals, before reaching a stall (Gregory and James, 2009). The origins of this culture are still linked to men's social status, with open urinals on the streets designed to facilitate men's use and to prevent men from damaging houses by peeing on the walls. Instead, women's urination has become a luxury, and society is far less accepting of it than men's. There are still many open urinals in urban areas that thrive. So there is an invisible boundary of rights around men: they have the privilege of being ‘allowed’ to pee everywhere.

However, while some men flaunt their power in society, they hide their manhood in men's toilets. When using urinals, the avoidance of physical contact or eye contact seems to be a tacit understanding among men. The sex organ, phallic symbol of male power, is exposed, leading to potential ridicule about its size and shape. This public exposure also allows for the invasion of someone's private domain (Molotch and Norén, 2010). Therefore, the invisible boundaries of rights for men is also an ambiguous boundary showing men's concerns about their personal space and gender identity.

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09

/ Background

1.3/ The Boundaries Concerning Sex in Public Toilets

‘Cottage’, usually meaning a small, cosy, countryside home, is documented as having been in use during the Victoria era to refer to a public toilet and by the 1960s its use in this sense had become an exclusively homosexual slang term. ‘Tearoom’ can have the same meaning and is used in American gay culture.

Cottaging as a kind of ‘cruising’ activity is also an anonymous form of sex (‘cruising’ is a slang term which means public sex in a homosexual context).

Traditional public toilets, separated for men and women, are absolutely designed as heterosexual space. The transgender community is made to use them in accordance with their physical sex. This causes extreme gender awareness confusion in traditional public toilets, especially after homosexual use as a sex place.

I am wondering how the gay community adapts to the city and how they challenge the urban structure by their 'abnormal' behaviour. Therefore cottaging has been narrowed to the main topic of this project.

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/ Chapter 2 Cottaging: Transgression Leads to Balance

To 'Transgress' is to challenge normal rules. It is slightly different than with 'change', which leads to significantly different results.

Transgression just leads to a little balance which between outside and inside, for human and space. In this chapter, I will explain how people and space about cottaging transgress and what kind of balance them looking for.

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/ Critical thinking

2.1/ The Excitement of Near Danger

The excitement of near danger is one Reason of Engage Cottaging.

Public sex is a common behaviour to all gender identities. But many people think this is immoral and even repulsive, as if this kind of behaviour must be sanctioned. But the immorality ‘lurks’ at every level of society. What is sought in this transgression of moral rules? We have to admit that although we live by the rules of an orderly society, people always satisfy the pleasure of transgression when they break the rules. This satisfaction is not only the excitement of approaching danger, but also the pride of having accomplished this dangerous and out of the ordinary task. Looking for this satisfaction is one of the main causes of homosexual encounters in public toilets.

This opinion is from two books: Queering Bathrooms and Toilet.

These two books definitely explain why gay culture is connected with public toilets, which is the theoretical basis of this project.

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The cottaging scene inside Broadwick Street Public Toilets Screen short from twitter video @UK Gay Cruising https://twitter.com/cruisingldn/status/1299170901829865473

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/ Critical thinking

2.2/ Destigmatizing Homosexuality and Public Toilets

Why do homosexuals choose public toilets as a sex spot? In my opinion, homosexuals and toilets are sort of the same: they are existing but civilized society is barely talking about it, even covers it up. For a long time in the past, they both implied dirtiness.

Homosexuality, a behaviour belong to life and shows love, in the dirtiest place same as them. They try to use this ultra way to prove they are living same as heterosexuals.

Therefore, their transgression is breaking rules of gender in toilets, the boundary of the human body by sex, and the boundary of their own body with orgasm. The balance is the proof of living under the reality of an unrecognised identity.

16

According to the relationship between homosexuality and public toilets, I put petals and dust in two condoms and attached them to a toilet seat by adhesive bandages. I am using this way to ask if sex, homosexual and toilets is beautiful or disgusting: should we destigmatize them.

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/ Critical thinking

2.3/ Cottaging Population

Homosexual and transgender groups are unquestionably the main populations that are cottaging in public toilets. However, within these populations, individuals engage in cottaging for their own reasons. Firstly, we can not deny that some people are excited by sex not in bed, especially in toilets. As Molotch and Norén state (2010), the transgression of social rules, spatial function and the boundary of body (sex behaviour) connect to each other, and this transgression leads to the psychological satisfaction of cottaging.

Another appeal is likely impersonal sex; not only homosexual men desire the simplicity of sex without sentiments. There are plenty of cases where heterosexuals will join the homosexual activity accidentally, even actively seek cottaging or cruising because of their curiosity or lack of satisfaction in their normal sexual relationships (Xiaoxin Fu and Zheng Wu, 2010). After following and observing cottaging players, Laud even found that a huge number were playing important roles in mainstream civilisation in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

Furthermore, from the heterosexual perspective, it may be gays who interrupt the normal behaviour in public toilets. In most cultures, at least some sort of privacy is requisite for sex. In order to discourage cottaging, those public toilets which are frequented by gay men are subject to stronger monitoring and policing. In some cases, such as in queer men’s or women’s spaces like clubs, there are usually employees monitoring the bathrooms to make sure people do not go into the stalls together and hold up the line (Cavanagh, 2014).

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Heterosexual

19

/ Critical thinking

2.4/ Impersonal Sex

Cottaging as a kind of ‘cruising’ activity is also an anonymous form of sex. Laud Humphreys (1970) uses ‘impersonal’ to explain this widespread sexual behaviour characterised by instant gratification and irresponsibility. The members of the population described in 1.4 obey this rule to protect their privacy.

Anonymous (Tom of Finland)

Anonymity also influences the process of cottaging.

Information

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21

/ Theory & diagram

2.5/ Cottaging Behaviour

Positioning

The payoff 22

Six Stages of Cottaging Behaviour

These diagram show the process of cottagi

Signalling

Contracting

Interruptions

Leaving 23

/ Concept making

Ceramic Tile Drawing I mixed together ceramic tile, cut vinyl and hand drawing, trying to bring my thinking about cottaging back to public toilets. This tile drawing is showing the step of signalling.

24

The axonometric drawing of Broadwick public toilets presents the formal space structure, and it has been cut from vinyl.

I adhered the cut vinyl on the tiles I got from trash of Paris. Tiles are a typical toilets material.

Th e h a n d d r a w i n g b y marker is recall the toilet's graffiti. This mixing of different media and material imply the human's transgressive behaviour.

25

/ Critical thinking

2.6/ Chapter Conclusion What is wrong with public sex? What is wrong with being gay?

What is wrong with cottaging? Why is society so critical of these issues? Public sex, like homosexuality, transgresses the social structure and formation we are used to. For example, masturbation is generally permitted in private but in public it is seen as indecent and even criminal. Fundamentally, the practice of sex is no different between people of the same gender and between men and women, in bed or in public toilets. The choice of place, the sexual behaviour, and the complexity and ambiguity of the population challenge traditional society's definition of what is public and what is private. In my opinion, there is no right or wrong use of public toilets; design considerations should come from a rational rather than moralistic standpoint.

Why do homosexuals choose public toilets as a sex spot? In a way, homosexuals and toilets are sort of the same: civilised society is barely talking about them, and even covers them up. For a long time in the past, they both implied dirtiness.

Homosexuality, a behaviour belong to life and shows love, in the dirtiest place same as them. They try to use this ultra way to prove they are living same as heterosexuals. Therefore, their transgression is breaking rules of gender in toilets, the boundary of the human body by sex, and the boundary of their own body with orgasm. The balance is the proof of living under the reality of an unrecognised identity.

In general, breaking routine is for bettering the final result. But in the context of cottaging, all the transgressions are about satisfying oneself. Heterosexual men may secretly engage in cottaging, but they do not aim to change their formal structure of family.

Therefore, perhaps this sort of satisfaction creates a balance between public and private self. Considering the structure of public toilets, sexual behaviour and the diversity of cottaging populations, perhaps radical transgression is a way to restore balance in our lives.

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27

/ Chapter 3 Grindr: Online Cruising

When I was reviewing the previous two chapters with my tutors, I found there are some gaps between my concepts and design tests.

I already realized that homosexuality lacks a safe and exclusive space in routine life (discussed in p25-26), but my entire work in chapter 2 is aiming to find a toilets suiting for any group. This gap makes the project kind of unreliable. So I go back to thinking about how is cottaging behaviour changing.

I asked my gay friend if he ever had sex in public toilets. He said yes, but was not looking for sex inside public toilets, just was waiting for a flight in the airport, then hooked up with a Grindr guy who was also waiting for a flight. After that I interviewed several people and found that cottaging is influenced by the internet, especially in younger generations. Therefore, Grindr, as the predominant LGBTQ dating app, is included into the project.

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Background \

What is Grindr?

As Grindr pronounces: “Since launching in 2009, Grindr has grown into the largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. We have millions of daily users who use our location-based technology in almost every country in every corner of the planet.

Today, Grindr proudly represents a modern LGBTQ lifestyle that’s expanding into new platforms. From social issues to original content, we’re continuing to blaze innovative paths with a meaningful impact for our community. At Grindr, we’ve created a safe space where you can discover, navigate, and get zero feet away from the queer world around you.”

Grindr Logo

29

/ Interview

Interviews with Gay men When I started to think about whether Grindr should be discussed in this project, I set up a profile as an invitation on Grindr. I chatted with lots of guys with interesting stories, one of them told me “Grindr kills cottaging”. He is addicted to cruising, always looking for sex on Grindr.

At the beginning I thought he was exaggerating, but after I analysed the online cruising process, I understand his opinion.

Although Grindr hook-ups and cottaging have the same aim, just for fun, they have different characteristic which I will explain in this section.

The screen-shot of my interview invitation in Grindr profile 30

Interview \

I also go through the hook-up website Squirt. Compared to Grindr, Squirt is more focus on users sex encounters. Therefore, people more directly share their sex preferences and sex pictures.

Even the website have a list of cruising spots of city, user can chat in each location’s group.

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/ Critical thinking

3.1/ The Needs of Queer Space

Living With Community, Public Toilets is a Community Gathering

For a long time, the city constituted vital spaces for sex minorities and queer communication (Turner, 2003). Humans live in communities, bound together by the same language, habits, or gender identity. Concrete architectural space is the realistic projection of community in urban and social life, such as Chinatown. Public toilets could also be the example of this kind of space. There is no doubt that today’s society is still under the control of heterosexual ideology. Using alternative functions of public toilets and other public cruising spots is the best, or perhaps the only way to construct a ‘homotopia’.

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Living in communities 33

/ Critical thinking

Gay Man Needs Space

Sex culture influenced the homosexual community. London is one of the most gay friendly cities. Soho it the most famous gay area inside the city.

Soho is the entertainment hub of London and attracts all the people who come to the city for fun. Therefore, after analysing the Commercial Function of Soho and Homosexual Public Space in Soho, I still can barely identify the main croup using the Broadwick Street public toilets as a cottaging site.

However, I found the spaces targeted to gay people are far less than 'normal' public space, even in Soho where is a gay district. Does this means homosexuals lack the space to seek their happiness? Or urban development forgot to consider the homosexual community?

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Site analysing\

Homosexual Place in Soho

Gay gym

Gay bar & club

Gay Saunas

Gay sex shop

35

/ Critical thinking

The Digital Closet is Not Perfect

When people face the crisis, they will try to find a safe space.

Actually we were already familiar with living online, but before the pandemic we never tried totally cutting out the physical social life.

For cottaging and homosexual, the social life already been hung online for a long time. They always face homophobia in society.

They need a safe space in which to find human contact. The internet creates a big closet for gay men, they can be themselves there, where is a more freer space.

However, digital spaces seem to provide queer communities with free space, but meanwhile they also keep this group in a larger closet. ‘Closet’ is a slang term to describe queer people juts share their truthfully sex identity inside and follow the rules of heterosexual society out of the closet

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/ Critical thinking

3.2/ The Locative Urban Life

From Scrolling to Strolling Reviewing the 6 steps of cottaging sexual behaviours, it seen that this whole process is closely related to spatial change, from entrance to cubical. An architect Regner Ramos (2020) defines this scene transfer as ‘strolling’. Strolling with a complex and unique personal geography, has been given the added function of exploring the city (Miles, 2018). However, the spatial context of cruising has been challenged by and forced to negotiate with increasingly sophisticated online spaces. The way some locative dating apps display user profiles sorted by distance helps cottaging players find the nearest player and establish contact effectively. People need not go into the physical community, such as public toilets, to seek an encounter. One way in which Grindr is killing cottaging is that exploring the city by strolling around is replaced by scrolling on a digital screen.

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/ Critical thinking

Public Toilets: From Medium to Supporter

70% of respondents from my survey said they usually open Grindr to check around when they arrive in an unfamiliar area. For instance, there is a new trend by which the stage of approaching (including positioning, signalling and contracting) moves online to dating apps. One gay male interviewee in my project noted the anonymous sex meeting frequently happens as a player looks for quick oral sex in an airport. With help from the internet, public toilets are a popular choice because of their convenience and free entry. But it also shifts the role of toilets in cottaging from a place where contact is established to a simple location for sexual play; so another way in which Grindr kills cottaging is that makes public toilets’ function can be easily replaceable. Sex can happen everywhere. Public toilets and other cruising spots are losing their alternative function. Where are people going for sex? Home.

‘Could you host’ is one of the most frequently asked questions during online cruising. The bedroom and home, the most private space, are more open for strangers. Austin Bryan (2018) provides an explanation for this trend: the chatting before meeting reconfigures the category of what a stranger is.

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/ Interview analysis

Area Attributes from London’s Grindr Users There are not just one my interviewees noticed that the attributes Grindr profiles are changing in different area. The differences of urban life also reflected online.

Hyde park is another popular cruising spot. People use Squirt looking for sex or who they encountered early on this spot.

There are several gay club located in Vauxhall. People still online very late night or early morning, looking for H&H sex. High and Horny means take drugs while having sex, and it usually be group.

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Hampstead popular cruisi

The SOHO’s profile pictures are more like decorated.

They provide erotic service.

The diamond ring emoji and ‘available’ shows it.

Heath is the ing spot.

‘ We l l - e d u c a t e d ’ i s w h a t ‘professional guy’ usually said. They are living in some nice area, like Clerkenwell.

People who are in Brixton more tend in to group sex, as the active area.

People who are in transport station also check there dating app a lot. But they will leave in a minute. So don’t take it series.

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/ Critical thinking

3.3/ Online Cruising Behaviour

Using Verbal Language The geolocating hook-up apps eliminates an underlying thrill of cruising, which is a sense of anonymity (Bersani, 2002).

In cottaging, characteristics of non-verbal language and the withholding of personal information contribute to this kind of anonymity.

In cottaging or cruising, people keep silent, use eye contact and touch to communicate. However, on Grindr, people have to use verbal language. Especially in the first three stages of a Grindr encounter, people need to use character to state personal information, such as sex position and body type. Then they chat to see if they are a sex match. And when they meet in person, they will give each other at least a simple greeting. On the other hand, sharing location is also sharing privacy, so some Grindr users do not put their face pictures on their profile. This situation is more common in homophobic cultures. Some users are still afraid of the life out of closet even in digital space. But others think the visualisation of physical distance will help them analyse the possibility of a sexual encounter and make choices about who to chat with online.

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Diagram \

Online Cruising Process Horny BTM Hey! HRU? Hello, I’m good. Thanks, HBU? Hung Looking for NSA

Great! You are so cute.

Thanks.

185cm, 76kg, Versaile, Single, Mixed, Muscular, Roght now, Negative

Setting profile

Online chat

07579852018 also is WhatsApp

Hi~

Hi~

Cool. See you later.

Sharing information

Meeting

**##x00*~ Bye See u

Having fun

Leaving 45

/ Critical thinking

Commercialization of Gay Men

What is even more ridiculous is that the closet, what online dating app built for homosexual people, follows the capitalist principles of the opposite sex. On Grindr, the most obvious feature of consumerism is users’ admiration of male attractiveness.

The convenience of technology not only increases the choice of sex players, but also increases the competitive pressure for users to be selected, so users have to promote themselves. The most popular Grindr profile picture is a handsome face with a shirtless muscular body. Gay men decorate their body and appearance as a way of self- promotion. Moreover, Grindr provides a huge list of personal information and preferences in the profile: age, height, weight, body type, position, ethnicity, relationship statues, gender, pronouns and HIV status, etc. All of this detailed personal information makes the human body into a commodity. Although the list of profile choices helps people to face their demand directly, it still is objectification of gay men and destroys the original impersonal sex found in cottaging.

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/ Chapter conclusion

3.4/ Chapter Conclusion

The previous section introduced some of the changes from cottaging to online cruising: 1\ The sharing of personal GPS data has expanded and dispersed urban communities, increased urban vitality, and eroded private space.

2\ The new technology changes the way of urban exploration from strolling to scrolling.

3\ Cottaging and cruising culture have also changed: there is less anonymity due to more sharing privacy data. This change affects queer identity.

4\ The misuse of public toilets is also blurred again, the new functions need to be redefined.

5\ It is hard to say whether the cyber queer space is perfect, neutral or terrible, but it is not a homotopia.

These 5 points are evidence of how geolocating technology reconfigure the modern urbanism, but how can designs adjust to it?

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Out of use public toilet because cottaging in Newburgh Street, London December, 2019

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/ Chapter 4 Manifesto: Labelling And Blurring Richard Hartshorne (1939) advocated for a definition of space according to the relationship to it rather than to architectural structure. Consequently, public toilets and other public space’s alternative uses transgress the conventional social cognition and dictate the common human relationship to the space. The essence of blurred spatial boundaries is the differences in spatial functional cognition. When defecation and sex behaviour, usually considered to be deeply personal, are exposed to public, this radical redefinition leads to an ambiguous location, which disturbs people discover their identity. From my personal stance, this is what design is for: changing or creating a relational atmosphere that connects people with themselves, others, spaces or objects. However, there are so many different people in this world that we need to make subgroups, based on characteristics such as heterosexuality and non-heterosexuality. There is no high or low between anything that exists, so I think the aim of design should not be to change the minority to obey the masses, but introduce the minority to the masses and guide the fusion of the differences.

Reviewing the changing of public toilets’ function and queer space by Grindr, gay men’s behaviour aims to create a homotopia, but the results not as they wish. Following this line of consideration, all the potential impacts by digital dating apps are changing the heterosexual community, and even all other communities. Most people are living online now. They scroll through the city through a the glass screen, their private spaces are infiltrated by strangers, and they also belong to more identity labels than they did in the past. Positioning in blurred boundaries is a goal that the whole society wants to achieve, but actually, the best way to define a blur is to accept it. We need not choose which label is matching with space, city and us, but we may label those as much as those could be.

In the other words, from the symbiosis between sexuality and space, it can be demonstrated that technologies and culture constantly overlap, creating new social systems relating to physical landscape of the city. Different urban systems comprise modern and post-modern urbanism. Blurred boundaries, an essential part of this system, affect the changing relationships amongst urban communities.

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/ Chapter 5 Glorious Public Toilets: Design Proposal

5.1/ Montage: The Design Methodology Public toilets runs through my whole theoretical discussion, from spatial function to gender identity to urbanism. The alternative social functions of public toilets could be a gathering place for different relationships, such as a normal toilets, a traditional cottaging spot; a landmark for meeting after online chatting, or a public pavilion. This proposal not only aims to destigmatize public toilets, cottaging and other related taboos by strengthening their architectural status in the city, but also highlights the blurred boundaries between population, community, architecture and city to bring the discussion about it back to society. The public toilet is a narrative vehicle for this project, as an interior and spatial design study, to communicate with society.

Inspired by the installation Bathroom Sweet by FAT (2000), this design uses montage to collage the different spatial elements in order to blur the spatial, cultural and urban boundaries.

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/ Precedent

Bathroom Sweet

This installation, comissioned by the British Council for its 'Hometime' Exibition in China, uses customised standard bathroom products to create a bathroom retreat for an imagined celebrity couple.

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Site Analysis \

Cottaging is Being Prevented When I was visiting Broadwick street public toilets, there were two attendants working and I had a short chat with them. They stated their main duty is maintaining acceptable social behaviour, which is preventing cottaging.

The following screenshot is from Twitter. The players are sharing information about the spot is no longer available as a place for cottaging.

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/ Site Analysis

5.2/ Broadwick Street Public Toilets: Site

Oxford Circus

e tre tS

gen Re t

Location The site of this proposal is the Brodawick Street underground men’s public toilets, located in central Soho, the hub of urban cultural hybridisation in London, and a popular cottaging spot where I first time encountered this culture.

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SOHO LONDON Existing Plan

Berwick St. Soho Square Broadwick St. Public Toilets

Cambridge Circus

Poland St.

Broadwick St. Hopkins St. Ingestre Pl.

Piccadilly Circus

1 100 200

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/ Site Analysis

Existing Public Toilets

The toilets include one automatic public toilets at street level and two underground rooms for men and women.

Existing Section

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Existing toilets street view Photography at June 2020

1 100 200 59

/ Site Analysis

The Plan of Existing Public Toilets

The cottaging spot includes two cubicles, six urinals and two wash basin.

There is a staff room connected to the men’s and women’s room.

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Existing men’s room June 2020

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/ Exploded diagram

5.3/ Spatial Function

This public toilets design includes two parts: above-ground pavilion and underground toilets.

The pavilion uses holes, pillars, glass and tiles as architectural language to introduce the spatial, cultural and urban boundaries combined with each other, and to highlight the public toilets’ location in the urban landscape.

The downstairs toilets follows a normal public toilet’s structure, separating men’s and women’s rooms. For the third gender group, they can use the mobility toilet above-ground.

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C

B

A

A. Men’s room B. Women’s room C. Accessibility and unisex toilet 63

/ Architecture language

5.4/ Above-ground Pavilion Locative system: columns Inspired by the existing Victoria-era metal fence and the geographic coordinate system, the columns construct a tiny community, and each labelled pillar will help people locate themselves more easily.

From geographic coordinate system to column system

N 0° S

W

64

0°

E

Pavilion infrastructure consisting of labelled 61 columns

5 4 3 51°30’26’’N 0°07’39’’W

2 1

D2 A

B

C

D

E

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/ Design details

Each column’s coordinates will be installed with an acrylic board on the bottom.

1.5cm

66

200cm

8cm 20cm

20cm

67

/ Design details

Online hookups, which relied on a physical system of identification, will be more effective. “I am wearing the white polo” will be simply share a nearby column’s coordinates.

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/ Architecture language

Blurred Walls: the Glory Hole ‘Glory hole’: a hole made in a thin wall where a man can insert his penis for oral and manual stimulation by an anonymous person on the other side. The not only became a sexual symbol, but also suggests that cottaging culture changes the formal boundaries.

The pavilion’s architectural form is the enlarged and deconstructed by glory hole. The oversized form of the glory hole consists of archways and pillars, which also recalls revivalism.

Artist Scott Lyman uses this style to express the golden age of cottaging in his video installation Folly/Monument; Excerpts from Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-Pool Library (2014). The walls divide public and privacy, functioning as cubicles.

In other words, the glory hole is the communication between two personal spaces. It also can be a bridge between all the communities?

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/ Design drawing

Pavilion Rooftop Plan

I matched the column coordinates with a map of London, then marked the eight typical gay areas on London that I have studied on section 3.4 (page 42-43). Then there is the pavilion structure.

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A. Brixtion B. Hyde Park C. Soho D. King’s Cross Station

E. Vauxhall F. Hampstead Heath G. Liverpool Street Station H. Clerkenwell

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/ Material

Virtual Skin: Glass

The combination of different materials could be a great way to translate the gap between physical cottaging and online cruising into architectural expression.

Online cruising needs a digital screen to work. Therefore, instead of physical encounters where people touch, smell or see each other directly, online players just touch a glass screen as a means of communication. No matter one’s age, race, weight, etc., the texture of skin is unified into a smooth and hard glass surface, especially when browsing the pornography to satisfy their sexual demand.

Therefore, I chose glass to tell the story of online life.

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/ Design rendering

Glass is placed in the shape of a glory hole in the roof.

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/ Material experiment

Cottaging Skin: Ceramic Tiles

Ceramic tile is the most popular material in toilets, since it is easy to clean. I found out through experiments that tiles can simulate the state of sweat and lubricant in human skin, which has some sexual implications. In the context of cottaging, the surface of ceramic tiles is a sexual symbol which reminds one of human skin.

For this reason I chose it to cover the surface of the outside pavilion and the inside walls.

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/ Material

Symbol of Ceramic Tiles

I chose different pattens and restructured the layouts of tiles to divide the eight attributes of areas of London. (Analysed on section 3.4 page 42-43).

SOHO

Hyde Park

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Brixton

Station: King’s Cross & Liverpool St.

Clerkenwell & Normal Area

Hampstead Heath

Vauxhall

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/ Design drawing

Ground Floor Plan

This drawing shows the structure and function under the glory hole rooftop.

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A. Accessibility Toilets & Baby Changing B. Urinals C. Toilets and Sink Sculpture D1. Lady’s Room Entrance D2. Men’s Room Entrance E. Open Seats

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/ Detail design

Urinals: Floor Tiling When I was studying the boundaries around men’s urinals, I mentioned that men have the convenience to pee anywhere, so I tried removing urinals, replacing them with floor tiling.

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This floor tiling is what I was trying to make using ceramic: different bars cross to make the tiling have holes, allowing urine to flow under the floor. Due to the COVID-19, the workshop was not available.

600 mm

600 mm

5 mm 15 mm 15 mm

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/ Experiment

Test of Water Permeability

I poured water, oily liquids and small particles to test the permeability of the tiling model. The result shows that all the three substances can permeate the tiling, but when they contact the tiling surface, water splashes will affect a large area around. That means if using the tiling as a urinal, the pee will stick on shoes and the bottoms of trousers.

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/ Design and effect drawing

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Pavilion Elevation and Rendering A-A’

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Walls of varying heights are placed betw to functions as seats, fence. Using arch shape of the glory hole.

ween columns, according hes, they conform to the

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/ Detail design

Sinks and Toilets on the Street

I retain the characteristics of traditional ceramic sanitary fixtures, white and smooth curves. Both my design of sink and toilets aim to create the implication of sex in the toilets.

Furthermore, in reference to Le Corbusier’s work, two toilet seats sculptures and one sink are put in the pavilion in the open street.

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Case study \

In the modernist period of "cleanliness is a virtue", the toilet is a manifestation of hygiene awareness, and its almost extreme performance on hygiene even exceeds what it can provide.

Entering from the main entrance of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoy, a white, independent wash basin appeared in the hallway, which made the architect think of it as an elegant sculpture. This sculpture is as round as the human body, with perfect curves.

Villa Savoy, 1929 Le Corbusier Photo: https://nedforrest. com/ceremony/ 91

/ Design rendering

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/ Design drawing and rendering

1750 450

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Pavilion Elevation and Rendering B-B’

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/ Design drawing and rendering

Men’s Room Entrance Elevation and Rendering C-C’

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/ Design and effect drawing

Women’s Room Entrance Elevation and Rendering D-D’

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/ Design drawing

5.5/ Underground Toilets

Toilets Floor Plan

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Inside the public toilets, the whole structure will follow the old style consisting of exposed pipes, cubicles, urinals and basins, which encourage sex encounters (Holland, 2020).

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/ Design drawing

Section E-E’

This design moved the middle staff room under the stairs, and changed its main purpose from supervision to normal storage.

Men’s room has three cubicles, and Women’s room has five.

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E

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/ Effect Picture

The cubicle doors are designed to recall the form of arc that has been used elsewhere. The extra arc part will be made by acrylic.

It will exposed more of the privacy inside a cubicle, making it easier to seduce, or more dangerous? The answer will depend on the user.

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/ Detail design

Higher Toilet Seat

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The last cubicle of the men’s room has two toilets of different heights, created for the varying demands of sex positioning. The higher one is not for daily use.

Section G-G’ G’

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/ Design drawing

Section F-F’

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F

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/ Detail design

Urinals Layout

Urinals are very important for cottaging, especially for exchanging non-verbal signals in the stage of seeking partners. I changed the layout of urinals to force user to have more eye contact with one another and to reduce the distance with the user behind him.

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/ Precedent

Monitoring

This two precedents showing the attitude of the mainstream society, trying to control the public privacy. How can I change the relationship about inside and outside?

Safe Zone Jonas Dahlberg made several installations. He put monitors outside the toilets, showing the same model of toilets. This makes me think about how I can design toilets cubicles to be exposed and private at the same time.

Tearoom The idea of using two-way mirror came to me from the documentary film Tearoom by William. E. Jones.

Tearoom consists of footage shot by the police in the course of a crackdown on public sex in the American Midwest. In the summer of 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio, Police Department photographed men in a rest room under the main square of the city. The cameramen hid in a closet and watched the clandestine activities through a two-way mirror. The film they shot was used in court as evidence against the defendants, all of whom were found guilty of sodomy.

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Safe Zones No. 7 Jonas Dahlberg, 2001 https://zkm.de/en/artwork/safe-zones-no-7

Tearoom 16mm film transferred to video, color, silent, 56 minutes, 1962/2007 William. E. Jone https://www.williamejones.com/portfolio/ tearoom 113

/ Detail design

Reverse Monitoring I put a video camera facing the entrance of toilets which connects to the screens above urinals and inside cubicles. Cottaging players can predict risk or browse cute guys on a screen different from phone’s.

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Section H-H’ 114

H’

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5.6/ Chapter Conclusion To sum up, the methodology of design on this project is architectural montage; the overlapping makes people, space and objects, that are not connected originally, produce a fierce collision, thus reconceptualising spatial boundaries. The aim of this proposal is to provoke society’s discussion of blur boundaries by overlapping the alternative functions to public toilets.

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/ Chapter X At The End; At The Beginning Starting with cottaging, which centres around the public toilets, this project explores the spatial boundaries of toilets, features of cottaging, Grindr and online cruising, and the symbiotic relationship among the three. It concludes that there is great social demand for queer space, both on the physical level and the digital level. Meanwhile, from homosexual physical cottaging to online cruising, the impact of digital technology on the boundaries of urban, interpersonal and spatial relationships can also be seen. Compared to traditional architecture, which has a single function, architecture and urban planning should put more emphasis on the development of alternative functions, given that technology creates new relationships between people and urban space.

Following this manifesto, the fundamental design proposal of Glorious Toilets though highlighting the architectural form of cottaging spots, and “labelling” more alternative function on this space. It not only develops toilets with near-perfect functionality, but also helps people to better accept boundaries and expand their self-understanding. Montage, a postmodern from of artistic expression, also helped the spatial design project to better demonstrate that urban architecture plays an important role in influencing social relations.

Although the discussion and design in this project are limited to the specific behaviour of gay men seeking anonymous sex, the same way of thinking, combined with sociology, anthropology and architecture, can still be used to study the spatial relations of the heterosexual world. Public toilets are just one example of how complex social relationships are mapped in space, but I’m excited to imagine that the design proposal ‘Glorious Toilets’ can influence queer community attitudes toward anonymous sex and queer space online by glorifying public toilets. How the convergence of history and technology affects future urbanism deserves more research.

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