The standard bathtub-shower design seems like a good idea. Two in one. But the compromise at the heart of its design prevents it from being a good shower. The cost of the compromise is hidden in plain sight, difficult to notice due to its ubiquity. Allow me to shed some light on the ways that the tub compromises the shower.

We begin with the uncomfortable task of having to climb in, over a literal barrier, without any clothes to soften accidental contact. And yet, clearing Clearing this hurdle is not merely a matter of stepping high and long. Because long because on the other side of the barrier one must balance onefooted on standing surface mutated by the tub into a skinny and smooth skinny, slippery ramp with sloping edges. It’s shockingly inhospitable ground considering its primary aim is to allow a bipedal, softskinned animal to stand barefoot while being showered barefooted in showering water and to contort while applying lubricants that ooze dangerously downwards onto an already slick slope. surface. But we’re used to it, this design, so we don’t notice its unfriendly design. baffling unfriendliness.

On If freed from the other hand, a shower that needs not perform responsibility of doubling as a tub tub, a shower can focus on being a good shower. It can be easy to enter and to exit. Its standing ground – freed from the obligation ground, unobliged to be gentle on a accommodate the bare backside – backside, can be tiled or otherwise surfaced with material of high enough friction so that it is easy gives traction to balance on, whether the bare foot, even when covered in soapy water or not. And it water. The dimensions can be square and wide enough to allow a person to turn and easily rinse different parts of their body without grazing the shower curtain having to watch their step or feeling otherwise feel unreasonably constricted.

Good design, as they say, is invisible. A good shower demands no effort or conscious attention from its user. It lets them get clean while their mind wanders. To achieve this, it must make it extremely easy to do all the basic things: get in, stand, wash, rinse, and get out. It sounds obvious, and yet the standard The tubshower hybrid most of us have at home fails this basic test.