ABSTRACT
Conventional bathroom architecture confirms and naturalizes gender distinctions by segregating the sexes within rigidly contained spaces. Subscribing to the popularly held belief that lavatory design responds to the functional demands of anatomical difference, the public restroom perpetuates the notion that gender rests squarely on the foundations of anatomy. In addition, both teams of architects call attention to the abject functions of the biological body accommodated within but suppressed by the hygienic white surfaces of the public bathroom. Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich expose the chase, the space discretely contained within the wall that conceals the clean and waste water pipes that conduct bodily waste and fluids. Plumbing lines, hung from the ceiling, make audible the sound of rushing water: when the toilets are flushed, their flexible, braided steel tubes wiggle under high pressure, causing the rush of fluids to resound throughout the space.
