Gates Foundation: 'We need to reinvent the toilet'

[David Morris]

Alex Kira's "The Bathroom" 1975
He was a (part-time) professor at the Cornell College of Architecture
when I was there in the mid-70's.  A book cenetred on the ideal
ergonomics of bathroom fixtures.

http://www.amazon.com/Bathroom-Alexander-Kira/dp/0140043713

http://www.chiprowe.com/bookrev/bathroom.html

A professor of architecture at Cornell University, Alexander Kira
first published his authoritative book on the loo, The Bathroom, in
1966 after having researched its design and function since the late
Fifties. The book was written for students and architects, but there's
enough history and social aspects and humorous asides that anyone with
an interest in tub angles, urine streams or public restroom design
will appreciate it. Kira sets out to examine "our attitudes toward
personal hygiene activities and the facilities we use to accommodate
them; our basic physiological requirements; our patterns of performing
the necessary actions; and the development of design criteria to
fulfill those needs."

[...]

Kira delights in providing plenty of facts. We learn that the average
adult faece is 4 to 8 inches long, weighs 100 to 200 grams and
contains (according to the textbook Gastro-Enterology) 65 percent
water, 10 to 20 percent ash, 10 to 20 percent soluble substances and 5
to 10 percent nitrogen. It is best released from your body from a
squatting position, with your thighs touching or almost touching your
abdomen, but most toilets are not designed for this and most people
can't squat as long as it takes for a complete bowel movement. Peeing
is covered in Chapter 11, Anatomy and Physiology of Urination, which
includes photos of urine streams and men and women urinating in what
looks like a shower but has measurement grids on the walls.