Bathroom

by Barbara Penner

 Most of us take modern bathrooms for granted—they are an essential part of our homes, but we ignore the complex network of pipes, pumps, and treatment plants that make up indoor plumbing’s infrastructure. Telling the story of one of the world’s greatest feats of engineering and mass production, Bathroom  follows the room’s evolution and the lifestyle it enables.
 

Considering how and why the bathroom emerged, Barbara Penner describes how it became an international symbol of key modern values such as cleanliness, order, and progress. She explores how colonialism, the media, fashion, world expositions, and tourism led to the bathroom being exported across the globe and explains the tensions this process has caused. While Penner investigates bidets, high-tech toilets, cast-iron bathtubs, and walk-in showers, she also ponders the low-tech, sustainable alternatives available to us. Filled with illustrations, Bathroom is an amusing and eye-opening cultural history of one of our most used but overlooked rooms. 

Genres: Nonfiction, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Barbara Penner is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. She is author of Bathroom (Reaktion, 2014 - short-listed for the RIBA President's Awards for Outstanding University-Located Research), Newlyweds on Tour: Honeymooning in Nineteenth-Century America (UPNE, 2009), and is co-editor of Gender Space Architecture (Routledge, 2000).

Barbara regularly lectures in institutions across the UK, Japan, and North America. She is a regular columnist for architectural magazines like Places and Architectural Review. She serves as a member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Architecture (2011-) and Interiors: Architecture, Design, Culture (2009-) and is a Board Member of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice history

[I.J. Brindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with accessible erudition, tongue-in-cheek humor and a sleuthy enthusiasm for the subject matter, Bathroom is a multifaceted and informative read that entertains from beginning to end. Splendid photos as well. Would pick the blue willow pattern myself.