What is this? This is the door of a bathroom cubicle on campus. The way they are built has been one of my first experiences at university and I wouldn’t say it’s been an extremely pleasant one. The first time I thought, maybe that was just a strange one but in the meantime I’ve used three in other buildings and in essence they are everywhere the same. The fact that they all are suitable for physically challenged people has to be acknowledged, however, my point is a different one.

As you can see on this photo, there are three gaps, varying from 2cm at the wall to about ½ to 1cm right and left of the door. What you can't see is that additionally, wall and door don’t even attempt to reach floor or ceiling. At the bottom they leave about 25cm space. Likewise they are just as high as necessary, which is about 175cm and a slightly taller man than I could look into the cubicle. Here are two more photos of the cubicle. Left is, what you 9the camera) sees from about 20cm distance, right what you see with eye (lens) right at the door.

I admit having a conservative approach to this matter but for me the bathroom ought to be a very private place. Urinals are yet another story but for the moment I’m just talking about the cubicles. Of course in public buildings it’s not possible to have the kind of isolated bathrooms as in most people’s houses and I don’t really mind hearing other people’s sounds. Did you know that apparently this is an absolutely no-no in Japan? A couple of weeks before my departure an Austrian-Japanese couple called on FM4’s radio chat-show "Doppelzimmer" (Sunday 1-3pm - I can only recommend it) and the husband explained that in order to avoid people hearing each other they play quite loud music in Japan’s public bathrooms. Usually classical music is chosen, which according to him, is one of the reasons why Japanese have a good knowledge of all the famous classical composers. I’ve never been to Japan so I can’t confirm that story, has anyone of you experienced or heard of that?

Apart from the audio-component, which, as mentioned, doesn’t bother me that much there’s also the physical one. In my mind the bathroom should be a place where you sit back and relax and know that you can’t be disturbed. I know that may sound a bit paranoid because who would want to disturb someone during those kinds of businesses, but hey, there are so many alcohol and drug consumers, so many weird and crazy people, thus where there"s an architectural possibility there's also a real possibility and however small it may be it can effectively destroy the notion of privacy and security that enables you to relax. Furthermore, due to the fact that in those bathrooms there’s always only one cubicle, you have to consider that whenever someone enters the room with such needs he will be waiting there for you – and only for you – to finish. In fact when you walk past an occupied cubicle I think you better look into the other direction in order to avoid any embarrassing situation. Well, at least they've abstained from having mixed bathrooms as in Ally McBeal.

So, what about privacy on the bathroom? Is this a symbol of Canadian openness? So far I haven’t found proof for Michael Moore’s thesis in “Bowling for Columbine” that Canadians never lock their doors. At least my landlord instructed me that I always have to lock the door – but he’s Polish and might have a quite special background (just kidding). I could ask some of the Canadians here whether Moore did present realty (which I doubt) but I have decided I’ll definitely refrain from ethnological field studies in form of attempting to enter random houses, because after all that is still Canada’s Wild West and if only one out of 500 owners possesses a gun that could be one too much.

As for now, the fact that I have had the pleasure of proper bathroom cubicles in bars and pubs leads me to the conclusion, that the campus bathrooms are not an expression of Canadian openness but rather seem to be a particular policy of university (or municipality). It may be based on security considerations (no undiscovered suicide attempts or preparations for an amok run), on moral considerations (no sex, drugs and whatsoever) or on ecological and economical considerations (students, do your big business at home and don’t waste the university’s paper and water!).

Having said all this I have to admit that my sample of four bathrooms within a rather limited area is a fairly small one in comparison to the extensive area of the campus and the number of buildings. So additional studies will be necessary to achieve a higher degree of reliability.