The book by design teacher and designer-consultant Alexander Kira contains materials from almost twenty years of research in the field of bathroom design. The monograph, first published in 1966 and reissued with additions in 1976, became an important milestone in covering the topic of bodily waste and personal hygiene, taboo in society. The author examined in detail the processes and procedures that take place in the bathroom, analyzed the current state of plumbing equipment and proposed criteria for optimal design. He accompanied all this with interesting historical and cultural essays that shed light on the issues of perception of the body and its natural needs in modern Western civilization. Almost fifty years later, the book's material is still acutely relevant, consistent with the author's observations about the extremely slow progress in this "forbidden" and "closed" field.