Bathroom as a modern space

Abstract

Mundane objects and their everyday practices contain clues to the prevalent ideas and ideals of a society at a certain time; thus holding the power to decipher collective ideologies, contemporary beliefs, social norms and shared values. Bathroom fixtures are such ordinary products of the built environment that seem to be simultaneously insignificant and indispensable parts of daily life. This study is an historical analysis of the bathroom as a social space and of its fixtures as material culture. It reflects ideas and identities around the convoluted notions of modernisation and Westernisation in the Turkish context. It suggests that the values of being modern contributed to the transformation of traditional bathroom practices through spatial mechanisms and equipment. To unpack these values, the study engages the examination of oral histories, literary works, journals and flat plans as well as extant bathrooms. The research shows that the bathroom is a product of global modernity. Mediated through flats, which proliferated as a sign of contemporary living, the Western-style bathroom became the norm while its traditional counterpart became its other. This shift in perception indicates a concern for belonging to the world civilisation in the form of an aspiration toward being Western. A universal idea of modernisation pervades the ordinary domestic space of the bathroom and its everyday practices.