The Evolution of Public Hygiene and Sanitary Facilities in the Context of Urbanization Processes and Social Conditions

• Published in: Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design for All and Accessibility Practice pp. 192 - 203
• Main Author: Jaglarz, Anna
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2014
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: development of public hygienic-sanitary spaces; history of urbanization; hygienic practices; public bath; public bathing; public bathrooms design; public health; public hygiene; public hygienic-sanitary facilities; public restroom; public toilet
• ISBN: 9783319075082; 331907508X
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-07509-9_19

The evolution of public places and facilities for personal hygiene is directly related to the history of urbanization and to people awareness of public health and its relationship to sanitation. Throughout history, this awareness has varied extremely both between cultures and periods and produced widely disparate responses in spite of virtually identical needs. Availability of technology, variable over the centuries, was dependent on the social and cultural requirements of the times. On the one hand, the new technologies developed in order to meet the growing needs, on the other technological achievements were ignored and not used by years. An example can be a legacy and the inheritance from civilizations such as the Cretans and Romans who accomplished amazingly great feat as regard engineering and the production of hygienic and sanitary facilities, with supplying the warm and cold running water, flushing systems, steam rooms and a lack of such appliances centuries later, when because of the civilization development the basic technology would seem to be far more advanced. It is possible to say that the form of hygienic and sanitary environment of man has always been reflecting the social and economic aspects, which are a consequence of widely understood, changeable, both individual and social needs, and of the cultural and technical progress of civilizations resulting from them. Experiences and achievements of previous generations are a base of the contemporary model of the societies life. Understanding and analysis of the contemporary needs related to public hygiene and sanitary area and possibilities of its shaping should be based on an analysis of earlier experiences in this field.