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Apr. 26, 2006 While my very good friend, Dr. Anga may not qualify as an Environmental Impact Assessment expert, I have taken his assertion and his concurrence with my experimentation –that a good squat out in the tall grasses or among the rocks under moonlit sky[s] or the scorching sun is –must be one of the most Exhilarating African Experience [EAE]. Unfortunately, here in my part of the world the architectural institutions are yet to liberate the mindsets of their wards to the vicissitudes of the Postmodern Era. As a result, many creative minds are stifled and mediocre designs result and continue to be shelved out. But then it would be unfair to let that postulation hang without qualifying the assertion-about architectural education. Fortunately there are always one or two or more unconventional mindsets and what a price to pay as genius is not readily recognized or appreciated. I dared not submit ‘The Ambient Toilet: A Case For A Patent’ as the topic for my Masters in Architecture[Msc.] Thesis, but now three years after successfully acquiring the ‘authority’ to do so I feel spectacularly emboldened to ….. a wonder what your name with a capitalized prefix or suffix can do. Without a doubt, a trip to the ‘john’ the loo, the latrine, ‘behind the house’, ‘in the grasses’ [whatever your lingual persuasion may be], that trip must be one of the most ‘must- do- activities’ no matter who you are. It’s surprising and absolutely puzzling despite all the noisy high profile TV adverts and PR innundations of everything from household appliances to Viagra [Viagra too could pass as a house-hold appliance. If you get my meaning….] that to the best of my knowledge there has never been one wholly dedicated to that ‘must perform’ trip to the latrine. Sure there may be advertorial placements in household fashion magazines of gleaming white cubicles of fancy fixtures – but with hardly anyone sitting on them, sure there may be adverts of the aftermaths …“I missed….”, but that would be a ‘hard sell’ for a cleanser or some other liquid. No matter what or how there is always that conscious awareness of either the odorous, roiling, curling expulsion leaving the exterior and some times the horrified - equal awareness that one could be the ‘author ‘of something so vile ….. Why can’t the trip there be like a walk in the park, a day at the beach, a hang out at the bar, a refreshing mountain hike or ride, a spin behind a fast car? On these premises rests the case behind ‘The Case for an Ambient Toilet’, that an enhancement –a positive one of the [extra ]sensory perceptions when carrying out such a private and unsightly biological function can turn this somewhat drudge of actions can be ‘a looked forward to’ of experiences . Hundred of years ago traditional African societies solved for the problem of waste disposal in ways unheard as without sewers and massive recycling plants they kept their ecology relatively –absolutely ‘friendly’ without the inherent and attendant problems so frequently associated modern technology. The concept of ‘The Ambient Toilet’ is to suffuse the restroom environment in a way that the action being carried out would seem so distant and remote that the trip for the expulsion of the foreign matter would be akin to a ride on a Ferris wheel or a roller coaster-thrilling and always itching to get back on,to the faint hearted or the purists this may sound heretical and then some. As already stated the preliminary design concept will be African, hence The Sahel Ambient Design ,The Rainforest Ambient Design, The Sahara [Desert] Ambient Design and so on. A Western design would be a challenge to look forward to as a typical Western mindset cannot really reconcile with or comprehend a good squat out there……. For now it’s just the conceptual stage –next time design development, working drawings and specifications! ------------ Email Stephen Lonewolf Makama: lonewolfmak@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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