we seem to watch the internation house hunters cable show on mostly central American, south american and european house hunting.
Things that jump out are
-no bathtubs
– generally small kitchens
– only one bath – esp in England
-no shower heads- just the hand held sprayer
– no closets
Whats the no closet thing about? When and why did closets get popular in the US? – do we have more changes of clothes?
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Another thing is that their kitchen cabs are, essentially, furniture and not built-ins. They move when the occupant moves.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Another thing that Europe has done differently is the low-flow toilets. Here, most manufacturers do whatever is needed to get the amount of water down to the required 1.6 gallons, while leaving some of the clean water in the bowl for the next user.
In germany, the toilets use a lot more of the 1.6 gallons for the flushing, and leave only about 1/2" of water in the bowl.
Sorta makes a toilet brush a mandatory accessory -- as demonstrated by every hotel I stayed in. Of course, there's never a suggestion about what to do with the s***y brush.
I think that German toilets also have a flat bottom, almost
a tray, onto which the caca is dumped, and Germans prefer to
inspect the result before flushing.
Same thinking as kitchen cabs over there. They use furniture pieces like armoires for closets
and on international house hunters ...
I always see a floor drain in the bathroom, right next to the toilet ... which is right next to the shower and shower drain.
I wonder if the "non-shower drain" is for the low flow toilet!
I notice that ... and the fact there's alot of butt ugly houses in the world.
I'd been to Canada alot before goinbg to the UK.
had seen and been to alot of gulag style apartment buildings in and around Toronto.
something about building something so depressing struck a chord with me.
then ... I had a chance to travel thru the UK ...
and suddenly I realized where that design theme came from!
even our hard core ghetto housing projects can't compare to those depression inducing high rises.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
No closets is a tax thing - at least in Germany. Rooms with closets are taxed at a higher rate than ones without, so you see no closets and lots of big furniture.
Showers are rare, as most europeans don't take showers.
Dryers are rare as well.
And your kitchen cabinets typically go with you, rather than staying with the house/apartment.
My theory is that Europe is much older architecturally speaking. Much of what was designed was pre-Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is why we have closets. ;)