Personal choice or authority?

Multiple sinks.

This photograph of a row of sinks brings up some interesting points. It has already been established, in a photograph above, that self-contained cubicles that have both a toilet and a sink within them exist. The three sinks correspond directly to the number of toilets within the toilet area where the photograph was taken. It could be to ensure that people do not remain in the cubicle any longer than absolutely necessary and therefore it is a way in which to control the speed of people that are using the facilities, thus ensuring that there is a constant flow with nobody hindering the access of the next user. The point, however, this is unhygienic, because users of the toilets must open the toilet cubicle door, before being able to make use of both the soap container and then the tap facility. It can be ascertained, therefore, that germs will be found on every toilet cubicle door handle. So, is hygiene indeed the purpose behind the row of sinks, each of which could equally have been installed next to each toilet and have been self-contained facilities; or is the purpose merely to make certain that nobody has to wait longer than absolutely necessary for a toilet to become vacant, whenever there is high demand? Having sinks in a row outside the actual toilet cubicle could be considered as a manner in which an authority is ensuring that the toilet users take appropriate measures where hygiene is concerned. By placing the sinks on the outside of the cubicles, however, the authority of an establishment is in fact negating the concept of personal hygiene because germs have already been spread before the user even gets to the sink area. There is also the element of socialisation involved here, making the use of the sinks almost compulsory, whereas if the sinks were located within the cubicles there would not exist any external pressure to use the sink and therefore people may not necessarily conform with the accepted practice of washing their hands after using a toilet. There is a certain amount of authority inherent in placing the sinks outside of the toilet cubicles, and one that is reinforced by the fact that all toilets, that I have so far seen, have a sink/toilet ratio of 1:1, indicating that they could just as easily have been located side by side in the toilet cubicle thus ensuring higher hygiene levels, whilst simultaneously relinquishing any power of control over the user.