Re-configuring the Bathroom_Example 1

 The red is the existing bathroom layout. I have moved the bathroom products around in various configurations. This is in an attempt to find out why they layout of my bathroom is the way it is.

I believe that the layout of the bathroom may not necessarily be the best it can be because of the pre- determined shape of the bathroom. When building our Stonewood home in 2009, the process involved selecting our home from a variety of plans designed by Stonewood. We would then sit down with an architect and tweak various parts of the house that we wanted to spend more or less money on. After the finalized design was drawn-up by Stonewood, we were recommended a variety of specialist shops to select our bathroom, kitchen etc. furniture from and organize it through each company separately.

So how does this inform my design theory and design practice? Well it tells me a variety of important points:

1. That my house plans were drawn up before knowing what furniture each room was to contain.
2. That when shopping for my bathroom furniture, we were allowed to chose from a variety of products in shops. 
3. The shape of the bathroom cannot have been derived by the products within it. 

In an attempt to understand the layout of my bathroom, I have made copies - to scale - of the shower, bath, sink and towel rail and reconfiguring and repositioning them within the constraints of the existing bathroom walls. I anticipate that the layout of my bathroom is because it is the only way the furniture would fit in the room provided to be 'the bathroom'.

Above is an rough plan of the bathroom - it highlights where there are doors (and if they are sliding/swing), windows and outside walls, as well as HWC and linen closet and the relationship to the hallway. 

This plan will be useful i knowing where products can be placed as obviously the wall with the window to the outside could not be used for the shower, for example.


EXAMPLE 1

This layout would not be possible because the shower is blocking off the only window. The sink position would be a good place - directly as you walk in the main door from the hallway.

The bath might be in an awkward place as it's too close to the shower and the shower door might not be able to swing open.

Clear walk into the bathroom from the hallway (opposite the sink) through to the bath and shower. Towel rail has only moved slightly from its original position.