L'igiene sociale nel XIX e XX secolo. I lavatoi pubblici

Abstract

In the renewal of hygienic standards promoted by European Nations, many build-ings had to align themselves with the latest dictates of medical science and of "hy-gienist" engineers: one of these were the public laundries. The Exhibition of Hygiene clarified the objectives to be followed in the design: first of all, the laundries had to satisfy the needs of public health, preventing the spread of infectious germs and ensuring the health of the people, often subjected to serious influences for the infected garments and the moisture that they endured for most of the day; at the same time, these buildings had to create the decorum in the popular districts of the city and therefore they had to be practical, simple and es-sential but without denying – in the most successful examples - their refined ap-pearance. Together with the studies conducted by the hygienists about the nature of the fabrics and the relative possibility of engraftment of micro-organisms, it was nec-essary that the building design put his attention to the "modern" washing tech-niques using warm water, as well as supply clean water and disposals of waste wa-ter. A great attention was directed, above all, to the used materials: clean and disin-fect pavings , majolica wall coverings or waterproof plasters, wooden platforms, compact surfaces and materials, … .