In modern residences, luxury bathrooms are more often designed with floor-to-ceiling, uncurtained windows, through which outsiders may observe the exposed occupant undressing, toweling, or stepping into the tub.
“Well, I guess we could watch each other read the newspaper,” one amused wife told her broker, according to The New York Times. Of course, most of these bathrooms are situated high enough that only the birds have the privileged view.
The benefit to bathroom users is that it offers them dizzying, sweeping views of the outdoors. The natural light is also beneficial for the body. After all, says designer Clodagh, “You spend eight or 10 hours in there a week, and it’s one of the places where you can refresh, renew, and get natural light. The skin is the largest organ on your body, and taking in natural light is very propitious for health and wellness.”
There’s great light during the day, notes Barbara Sallick, co-founder of Waterworks, but then again, there's the coldness of a masculine city at night, combined with a generally sleek, glass-heavy design. “[There's] nothing to make you feel closed, warm, and private," Sallick says. "And there is the cityscape that is in itself sort of active, so how do you ratchet that down? All the glass and all the white is beautiful, and it’s hygienic, but it’s cold. It feels more like an operating room.”
There’s that to consider, as well as the privacy one may want, at least sometimes, during the day.
For those who can afford it, there's the luxury option of installing "dueling toilets" in home bathrooms. These intimate toilets face each other in their respective transparent glass boxes, from which users can gaze at each other.
At 737 Park Avenue––which is designed with these, open, floor-to-ceiling glass bathrooms––in Manhattan, New York, only three buyers chose the glass-free commode. The rest opted for a privacy banner, a stripe of frosted glass.
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