Body Cleaning and Ageing Affordances and Constraints of Sanitary Ware Products

• Main Author: Salgamcioglu, Berrak Karaca (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Istanbul, Turkiye Istanbul University Press 2021
• Subjects: Architecture
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

Body-cleaning, which is an indispensable part of our daily life, is also the source of countless difficulties and fears for many older people. The problems and accidents experienced during body-cleaning significantly affect the lives of the elderly and turn a pleasurable activity into a troubling one. In this respect, it is important to investigate in detail the use of the bathroom and the products in it where body-cleaning is carried out and to determine the necessary regulations. One of the strengths of this book is that it is the most comprehensive research in recent years made in Turkey related to ageing and bathroom design. The book, which reveals bath and body-cleaning activity through the narration of bathroom users, is also important in terms of presenting the study participants' live bodycleaning poems, which display the body-cleaning activity from the point of view of older women in their purest form. The representation of the research study using poems rather than plain text distinguishes the book from other studies. Thus, it enables the issues of washing - bathing - old age to be handled in the context of psychological - emotional dimensions. This precious study will be appealing to professionals working in the fields of Design, Architecture and Interior Architecture as well as undergraduate and graduate students in these fields. Moreover, it will be interesting to readers who study or are interested in ageing and gerontology. It will also attract not only Turkish researchers, but also international readers as it is a universal subject. Human life is being prolonged and the number of people defined as elderly in society is increasing rapidly. Ageing healthily or living a healthy life is becoming more and more important every day. It is observed that in developed countries, comprehensive studies are conducted on elderly people, who constitute a significant percentage of the society. Unfortunately, such studies are limited in our country. On the other hand, there is also a need for research on the space that constitutes the living environment of the elderly. This study, prepared by Dr. Karaca, provides a comprehensive overview of the issue of bathing and body-cleaning, which is or will be important for everyone. The author, Dr. Berrak Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu deserves to be celebrated for carrying out successful work on a very original subject at the intersection of architecture and industrial design. I wish for this book to be a guide to healthier years for everyone.