Architectural design of Hotel and Mall Bathrooms in Kenya.
Bathroom facilities require to be positioned in locations where they can be naturally ventilated via a window to outside. In cases where electricity costs are not an issue, the toilets can be ventilated via Air Conditioning. Such air conditioned toilets can be seen in Karen crossroads mall.
Covid.
Air Conditioner ventilated bathrooms are ok when the Air conditioners are powerful and running 24 hours a day . This prevents the bathrooms from having a stale unfresh smell . In current times of Covid, there is a need to proper ventilation to keep the air free from Covid virus.
Electricity cost.
In Europe and America, cost of electricity is usually low enough to allow for air conditioning of bathrooms unlike in Kenya where cost of electricity is high and running the are conditioners all da would considerably increase the building running costs. In Kenya , its much easier for the developer to ask their architect to design the bathrooms in such a manner that they can easily be naturally ventilated, saving a lot of money in terms of maintenance costs since naturally ventilated bathrooms cost zero to ventilate.
Solution.
A few hotels around the country, Naivasha, Nakuru etc. also use mechanically ventilated bathrooms. This increases their running costs considerably. Architectural re design to position the bathrooms in locations where they can easily be naturally ventilated is a good solution.
Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
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