Overall strategy:
During the concept design phase, I made sure that the toilets are stacked in all floors as much as possible. Only two all-gender toilets in the third floor are not stacked, but they are close enough to the ones below to connect them to the shaft. There are two large main shafts on either side of the building that are provided for each toilet complex. The shaft is used for the riser location.
The byelaws in most Indian cities (also where my building is located) for an art gallery/museum:
As per this, my building, on the left side with limited office spaces, has 1 all gender restroom on floors with limited access, and 2 of these in the main office floor. The right side of the building, with more public access, has 3 cubicles for women, and 2 cubicles+2 urinals for men.
I tried to avoid placing the fixtures on the façade walls, since they may have different joinery details and it’s best to avoid interfering with the plumbing and those elements. I also tried to use common walls to minimize plumbing efforts. The stall sizes for the ADA accessible ones are at least 5’ wide.
Plumbing elements:
The plumbing system includes the following:
Ledge wall for flush tank and space for plumbing: 3’ height
WCs in cubicles:
Vanity sink:
Urinals in the men’s restroom:
Shaft sizes: Two main shafts on either side of the building to receive the pipes. Sizes: approx. 7x4.5 sqft each.
Piping Elements:
The different piping sizes and elements used:
Risers: 4” for sanitary system, 1” each for hot and cold water
Branches: 3” for sanitary system, 1” each for hot and cold water
Typical bathroom block:
Challenges:
- Although the stacking of the toilets helped out immensely, at some places, like the third floor, the toilets are a wee bit shifted, and that adds to the complexity by necessitating extra pipe work.
- The men’s room on the third floor suffered because of lack of space, something which I might work on in the future.
- The slope for the sanitary pipes was very tough to work with, since most of the time it would slope in the wrong side.
- For some reason, I was unable to copy the pipes from one floor to another properly; I had to paste each pipe separately, or model from afresh.