A design research about public toilets in Turkey: Toilet experience of urban educated user

Public toilets are indispensable part of everyday life and conditions of these facilities dramatically affect the quality of life of the users. Considering the idea of sharing with the other members of society, users' approach to public toilets is different from residential bathrooms and they develop different ways of use in order to deal with the dirtiness. The concept of cleanliness was shaped around the ideas about disease, religious beliefs and the construction of society. Inside the triangle of politics, religion and society, cleanliness gained a moral value and dirt functioned as an instrument of social control of working class by bourgeois or peasantry by urban class. Cleanliness played its role of creating and shifting the boundaries between social classes throughout the unique adventure of civilizing and industrialization of each society. While human beings share the same physical needs regardless of their cultural identity, being charged with different meanings the concept of cleanliness and needed level of privacy changes accordingly. As a results of the ideas about cleanliness in Islam and the traces of nomadic culture of old Turks, toilet use in Turkey differs from the western world in many ways. The modernization and westernization movement reshaped the idea and practice of cleanliness in Turkey; and society created its own eclectic concept of cleanliness. The cultural and symbolic aspect of the ideas and practices of cleanliness suggests that the difference between the dirty and clean is about classification and construction of boundaries and control; while the social aspect suggests that it is the difference between primitive and civilized or upper and lower class. The idea and practice of cleanliness is shaped by the progress of scientific knowledge as well as the social and cultural factors. Developing technology and related products mediates these practices and sets their own standards of cleanliness. The study aims at developing an understanding about the public toilet experience of urban educated user in Turkey with regards to the concept of cleanliness; the methods developed by user in order to deal with the dirtiness, the way that the products mediate these methods; and the role of design in the perceived cleanliness of public toilets. The intimate and private nature of the subject causes many challenges about the research method. As a result, cultural probes method by which users observe and record their own experience was adopted and this method is combined with semi-structured interviews. A pilot study with seven users was conducted in order to explore the research environment and to refine the method. Main study is conducted with 14 female and 12 male respondents who are active in urban life and spent the most of the day away from home. Content of the probe packs are designed according to the research goals. Each user has shared their experience from three different public toilets and take photographs of research environment. They also reported different ways of use and narrated of their public toilet experience with given stickers of images and words. It is critical for the research to be conducted in real-life public toilets, because the focus of the study is perception of cleanliness and methods developed in order to deal with the dirtiness. Cultural probe packs enabled the researcher to gather data from different public toilets such as toilets of shopping malls, mosques, restaurants and pay public toilets around the city. Besides, cultural probes helped to develop a dialog between the researcher and participants and enabled to record the experience as it occurred or shortly afterwards. The self documentation of their activities and observing their own experience helped participants to develop awareness about the research subject. The photographs and notes taken by participants also prompted memory during the interviews. As a result, the interviews were conducted through real user experience of real-life public toilets. After recording the experience with cultural probe packs, the interview data and user statements on the probe pack cards were analyzed according to the methods of Grounded Theory. Based on the empirical data, a theoretical model was developed in order to explain the public toilet experience of urban educated user and five main categories ware identified: "user", "desires and worries", the acts of users specific to public toilets", "built environment" and "maintenance and management". The model suggests that knowledge and ideas of the user about cleanliness, their social and cultural background and the previous experiences shape their desires and worries about public toilets. Users trace the previous user in public toilets, search for the evidence of cleanliness, observe, interpret and make assumptions. According to the perceived cleanliness of the toilet, users develop different methods and practices. The built environment shaped by toilet fixtures not only effects the perception of cleanliness but also mediates these methods and practices. In the final chapter of the thesis, the findings which has been categorized by means of theoretical model were discussed according to the research questions. The factors affecting the perception of cleanliness and the current hygiene practices of urban-educated user; public toilet experience with regard to the perception of cleanliness and the methods developed to deal with the dirtiness; the role of design at the public toilet experience; and the effect of design on the perception of cleanliness were reconsidered. The results indicated that the idea of sharing provides the basis of public toilet experience and cleanliness in public toilets is considered as an issue of reliance. The public toilet experience for urban educated user doesn't mean solely affording a basic need but represent a struggle, a challenge and a source of anxiety. For urban-educated users who follow modern western societies and embrace rationalist principles in their lifestyle, avoiding dirt at public toilets means protecting the purity of their own social category. The methods developed in order to deal with the dirtiness are strategies and tactics of building safe borders with other users. The study showed that the perception of cleanliness in public toilets was determined by numerous factors and this process is multidimensional and complicated. Public toilets are complicated systems consisting of product, lightning, interior design and organization, maintenance, cleaning service, and both previous and current users. In these systems, design solutions intended for cleanliness are meaningful and effective as long as they convince the user and perceived correctly. While the intervention area of design is limited in public toilets, even simple design decisions like product form or color is determinant to the message of cleanliness carried by products. By considering different dimensions of public toilet experience and users' perspective, developing more qualified and reassuring design solutions is possible. Although only the design itself falls behind showing a dirty toilet as clean and hygienic; in an well-maintained facility, convincing and reliable solutions from the users point of view are effective. Objects of public toilets transfer messages of cleanliness, impose their own standards and consistently set these standards higher and higher.