What psychopath architects are still designing bathrooms that you have to pull the door open in order to leave?
It’s both a hazard for emergencies as well as a hygienic nightmare. We all see the people leaving without washing their hands!
It’s both a hazard for emergencies as well as a hygienic nightmare. We all see the people leaving without washing their hands!
Primary traffic routes during an emergency have priority. It is a hazard for doors to open into a hallway.
US based architect here: this is the correct answer
Draftsman here, and yup. There's codes about this.
Inner doors should swing inward because in case of a fire or other emergency, you don't want to be trapped inside by something blocking the door that you cannot deal with. Even in something were preventing it from swinging open (like a rope or whatever), in theory the person could still get out because the door hinge would be located on their side and they could simply remove it.
Also because the hinge would have to be on the outside if swinging outward and thus not be securable. As the hung pins could be removed and door opened while locked.
There are locking pins to secure outward swinging doors. Though fire and safety reasons are really why the doors swing the way they do.
In large building some code requires exterior doors to swing out as pressure build on a fire could jam the door closed. Also some exits require push bar which is swing out.
The in swing though makes sense for more smaller buildings and internal doors. Not wacking people and not getting blocked in seems the better method.
We have outwards opening bathroom doors in the office and they're great for giving people concussions and bumps on their head, as well as knocking coffees out of people's hands. When we pass these doors in the hallway we put our hands up like our abusive dad went for a high five.
Your local Fire Marshall would like to know your location.
TBH I want to know where they were when this building was built. Who came up with this and who allowed it?
if its an older building it may have been built before those laws and then grandfathered in (which is bullshit)
Nope, it was built within the last 10 years. I don't know what Danish building codes are like but these are definitely built different from everywhere else I've been in Denmark
OP you clearly have no clue what you are talking about. Safety if number one reason, slamming the open-door in people walking outside the door is another. You can defend against someone forcing their way in, by using your body weight against door, something you can not do if it swings outward. Odor control is another issue, door swing outward will release the smell into next room, rather than contain it with the swing inward. Finally, this has nothing to do with architects or interior designer, this is a building code bylaw, as accessibility demand the door swing inward for people in a wheelchair so they can operate it.
That might be true in a small shop, but in a lot of places the bathrooms are recessed into a hallway where nobody who isn't trying to get into or leave the bathroom should be standing.
Is that really a concern...? The amount of conditions that have to be true for this to become a thing seems really long... boarding on the "your insurance policy covers you if an elephant falls through the roof on the first day of February" cartoon levels of specificity.
Not to mention if you assume a truck stop instead of a restaurant. It might be harder to use your body weight to keep a door closed, but with a proper door frame, deadbolt, and security hinges, it would be basically impossible for some hypothetical attacker to break down the door.
Um, no it won't? This is actually backwards the pivot of a door that swings back into a room, will force air out of a room with it swings out. If it swings out, when it closes it's going to push air back towards the room.
In either case, I'd expect basically no observable impact on the amount of perceivable smell.
They still have to get out...? It's not our handicapped folks are getting stuck in bathrooms are they? And if they are, wouldn't that be a reason to change this?
I'm struggling with the rational
Fire codes. There's laws about this. You can't have doors swinging into a walkway whether it's a bathroom door or office door.
That surely doesn't apply to the situations I discussed above where the bathrooms are recessed (and/or just generally wouldn't be blocking anything if the door was open).
No, it doesn't apply to the situation thay only you were talking about.
I’m not an expert (at all), but I presume that opening a door into a thoroughfare risks hitting someone with the door but opening into a room only risks a person ready to leave (and approaching the door head on?)
Just thoughts…
One compromise might be touchless door handles
I've also seen these at my school, but it doesn't work for all doors since the door needs to be light enough
Neither of these are that accessible though, and I can't find photos of the better ones
accessibility shouldn't prevent improvements, we can just add the foot handles and handicapped people simply keep operating doors like they currently do.
They'll still be exposed to fewer germs so they benefit anyways.
That's fair, both options can exist at the same time in this case
Or people could simply wash their damn hands...
Have you met people? They don't do that.
I've seen something similar for your arm. It's larger and at arms length so you can use more of your body weight to pull it open
The arm one is dumb because I've seen people with unwashed hands grab it. The foot one makes more sense. Although it's not accessible like you said.
So? If I can manipulate it with my sleeved arm (thus keeping my hands clean), it's still working pretty well. Sure, I'd prefer not to have my sleeve contact something that someone's unwashed hands have been on, but better that than my hand.
I have actually seen these foot handles in a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio... pretty nice!
You reminded me of something I learned about back when I worked at Disney - most of the bathroom doors on property swing the way you're complaining about for reasons I can't remember but might be because you're supposed to have clean hands when exiting the bathroom (wash your damn hands!). But Disney's Animal Kingdom is different, because if an animal gets loose the bathrooms are designed to keep animals out, most animals are going to have trouble figuring out how to pull open the door to get into the bathroom. Good to know in case their new batch of cheetahs also figures out how to escape.
We need those cool and unnecessarily complicated sci-fi doors that open with multiple stages or like a camera aperture or a Stargate iris.
Fuck that. I want the swish sound sliding doors from the original series of trek.
No. Every. Single. Door has an automated 30 second vault-like opening sequence.
https://youtu.be/XQaY74roc50
Yes, this every time you go to the bathroom.
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I want the doors from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that make a sigh sound when they open.
Bathrooms with pull to open handle doors without paper towels are the worst.
Ones who want to make it less likely that people get barricaded into a bathroom.
I can't imagine being one of those people that freak out over the littlest thing. I always imagine invader Zim when he learns about germs.
My favorite is bathrooms where you can stand at the urinal and make eye contact with people in the dining room everytime the door opens.
asserting dominance
Use a paper towel to grab the door handle so you don't have to touch it directly.
Or you could tear the Dyson hand dryer off the wall and carefully jimmy the door open with it
Fuck those things.
I like the way you think! Please tell me you run a commagazine with more wonderful tips and tricks like this :D
This is what I prefer to do, but more and more establishments nowadays are getting rid of paper towels in favor of hand dryers. So then I have to grab the handle barehanded. I try to use my shirt in those cases.
I believe it's to do with hand cleanliness. When you enter, you push the door as your hands are dirty (maybe shove it with your arm or something), then when you leave your hands are (supposed to be) clean so you pull the door as it's a nice clean handle to grab.
I don't get it either, but that's what I've heard as the reason.
So then we need saloon doors that swing both ways?
Now I have this mental image of people coming in and out of the toilets triumphantly through saloon style doors after doing business
I live in Texas, and I feel like I've seen this before. Not necessarily the bathroom itself but in the little hallway that leads to the bathrooms.
I actually think this or just a double hinged *kitchen style" door is the best answer
or use some kind of baffle
If I'm sure about one thing, it's that people are disgusting. I'd much rather avoid touching the door after using the toilet when my hands are clean. And even in the case that the door is disgusting, you can wash your hands both before and after.
Someone might correct me, but if I remember correctly it's something to do with air flow as well
Thank you! Same exact thought, I was telling my friends this a while back, and they said I was making no sense
Architects are psychopaths. So most of them?
I've only seen doorless toilets in large well ventilated spaces such as some train stations. I don't think that would go well inside a shopping mall or a restaurant
I got through most of the post/comments thinking this was about stall doors...
Eh, it's unclear honestly. After reading some comments I realised op maybe meant the direction in which doors open, not the fact that you have to open doors. I don't know
It isn't?
Some of the comments might be about stalls, but I think most of them might be about the door to the bathroom itself. Since a person would wash their hand after leaving the stall and before touching that door, and with a pull door you have to touch that handle.
I realized it with this comment since a doorless stall sounds like a nightmare
You just need to learn the Joe Rogan spinning sidekick.
That gets you in. How do you get back out?
With the same move. But nobody will close the door at all after you're done.
Most bathrooms have foot pulls now, it's not a perfect solution for everyone but it's better than the alternative.
What's a foot pull? I'm imagining a floor-level hook that you either use to open the door or break your ankle with
Prettmucexactlthat
Yes. They're dumb.
My shoes are smooth enough to make it impossible to get a grip on them. Not to mention trying to balance while pulling it. Some bathrooms have an arm pull, dobt know how hygienic it is.
Most? I do see them often but you definitely live in a different place than I do.
Central Florida.
Toilet doors should face outward, so you can save someone who's in distress inside.
And smash people outside in the face
The moment your elderly mom has a stroke on the toilet, you'll look back at all the times you got the door in your face and be grateful. What a tiny price to pay for the life of your mother.
I can see this for a stall (think someone falling over and blocking the door, or one of those really tight bathroom stalls where you really have to shimmy to get yourself into the stall), a bathroom door itself not as much.
I just eat with dirty hands. No matter how hard I try to be clean I will always end up consuming filth one way or another so now I dont worry about it. I'll take a shit, not wash my hands and then pick up a slice of pizza no worries.
Ah. Living proof that people are fucking disgusting, in case anyone had any doubts.
That's right who cares about other people touching what you touch with your shit hands. Shouldn't be around you if they don't want that.
Anything in public should be assumed to be dirty. If its not me fuckin it up someone else will.
That's the spirit—things suck anyway so you might as well contribute, right? You're an inspiration to us all.
Its impossible for things in public to be clean. I am not making things worse. I am just not neurotically worrying about things that dont affect me.
You are. Roughly 48 million food borne illnesses per year in the US, in large part due to people not washing their hands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne\_illness#Epidemiology
Also Noro-virus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norovirus
A large part of prevention is handwashing.
Also, Cholera:
https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/preventionsteps.html
Have a guess what prevention step 2 is.
You go around with shit particles on your hand, infecting everything. You're a typhoid Mary. Even if you've never been ill after eating some food (which I find unlikely) it's not unlikely that you have made people ill, and maybe even killed someone with a weakened immune system.
I'm not in the us so relax.
The US has relatively low levels of food borne diseases. It was an example.
Also parasites, like hookworm:
https://www.healthline.com/health/whipworm-infection#prevention
Up to a quarter of a billion people are infected worldwide, in large part due to poor hygiene.
Then there's round worm, likely a billion people infected globally. Once again, due to poor sanitation and hygiene aka handwashing.
But hey, you do you.
Just know that at this point you might as well stick your thumb up a strangers ass then lick it. It's fundamentally not that different to not caring about washing off shit particles before eating food.
Mate people are eating a different strangers ass each week. These people never get sick because it builds up the immune system
As mentioned above, people get sick in large numbers, and many die.
You can't 'build up your immune system' by eating literal shit.
You can't prevent cholera or a parasitic infection by licking toilet seats either.
I mean, seriously. Don't believe me, go eat an actual turd. See how you feel.
Look at the difference in sick days between a construction worker and an office workers. Spending your whole life trying to avoid germs is a futile battle.