A Study Of Universality In Mobile Toilet Design

Mobile toilets constitutes an indispensable part of modern city design and urban layout planning for city as a whole and specific sections of city as well. At present, there already exist numerous standards regulating the manufacture of mobile toilets, which provide detailed guidance for interior design and layout of mobile toilets. However, these standards seem to be separated from city design and administrative departments. Also, these standards seem to split the interiority from the environment, local situations and users' needs . Despite the guidance provided by these standards, the mobile toilets produced cannot said to be satisfactory in the fields such as exterior shape, interior equipment and outlay, location, security insurance, sanitation, practicality and the degree to which the requirements of the disabled are met. The paper focuses on how mobile toilets satisfy users' needs in the macro-context of city designing. From the author's viewpoint, mobile toilets should be regarded as a means to resolve urban problems. It's also a necessary part of strategic policy regarding city management and design. What the paper intends to provide here is not an ideal toilet designor a universally applicable blueprint. Considering that mobile toilets design involves a myriad of factors, a universal design of mobile toilets seems infeasible.What this paper intends to provide is a set of principles and objectives that can guide the designing process of mobile toilets in all circumstances. Throughout this paper, central emphasis is attached to mobile toilets, which constitute a basic element for sustainable city development and a necessary supplement of ordinary public toilets. Further discussions on the guiding principles regarding mobile toilets are conducted in a step-step way from the sociological and physiological perspectives.The study involves a retrospect of a series of academic and professional fields and refers to a large amount of literatures, past or contemporary. In this paper, the author first demarcates two major groups involved, namely the mobile toilet users and the mobile toilets providers and then carries out discussions with them. As for other problems concerning mobile toilets, an interview- and- investigation style of study is adopted and several questions are raised.The first half of this paper discusses the factors that govern and influence the concepts of mobile toilets. The latter half raises the problem of universality and attempts to find out correspondingsolutions from the angle of designing and provide some guidance on the basis ofexisting policies and regulations. All the problems and solutions are forwarded from the angles from the users' and the providers'. The paper includes a comparison of designs from different countries worldwide and provides some models, not limited to those from Asian countries which are undergoing a toilet revolution. Proceedings of world toilet conferences held in Japan, Singapore and China in recently years are also contained in this paper so as to provide a broadened horizon for mobile toilet design.In the investigation of existing problems concerning mobile toilets and in the search of corresponding solutions, considerations on non-spatial (social) factors are of great significance. What is innovative in this paper is the discussion of the "social relations in spatial terms and its reproduction in space ". That is, the paper focuses on problems concerning city mobile toilets in terms of culture, medical science and environment. Accordingly, the paper raises a complete set of universal design concepts for mobile toilets.