The Castle Museum of the Budapest History Museum has its location in the former Royal Palace, which was built on the ruins of the medieval palace. The remains of the medieval palace’s latrine are still there in the so-called King’s Cellar, which was recently refurbished and provided with a new entrance to the museum.
Thanks to this renovation and the construction of the new Museo Mundial installation, visitors can now set foot in this room and get a brief overview of the history of the bathroom and the spread of flush toilets. This was a defining moment all around the world, since the spread of numerous diseases can be prevented by the proper separation of sewage and drinking water.
Cost of materials |
750 € |
Programming |
600 € |
Design |
350 € |
Total |
1700 € |
We would have liked visitors to “bump into” at least one of the five installations on one of the floors of the museum (the museum has four floors in total).
The new entrance to the museum from the so-called King’s Cellar leads tourists and visitors from the reconstructed medieval garden into the museum. By using the popular topic of a former lavatory (a topic still relevant today, since many visitors look for the toilet soon after entering the museum) we tried to arouse the interest of visitors from the start, in the case of those entering the museum from this direction.
The reconstructed medieval lavatory provides an outstanding location for visitors to think about the habits of the people living in the former Royal Palace.
The medieval part of the palace was reconstructed in the 1960s and, given that there had been no further significant refurbishment work carried out since then, we needed to ensure that all modern technical requirements for the use of a touchscreen within the installation were met.
The estimate for equipment proved accurate, but programming needed to be better planned in order to produce a detailed estimate of the costs involved.
To define the content, we consulted with the curators of the exhibitions, and the refurbishment of that part of the museum was a happy coincidence. We bore in mind the existing exhibition objects in this part of the museum and also consulted historians on the history of hygiene.
The content had to fit the behaviour of the visitors as well. Since we planned to lead them through the history up until the present day, we needed to consider how long they would spend browsing on the touchscreen.
The installation design matches the museum’s existing boxes and touchscreen systems. The installation was carried out in parallel to the refurbishment of that section of the museum.
UN Water: World Toilet Day:
www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday/home/en/
World Toilet:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Global Water, Sanitation & Hygiene:
www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/sanitation/
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Sustainable Sanitation Services:
www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Water-Sanitation-and-Hygiene
World Health Organization: Progress on drinking water and sanitation:
www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2012/jmp_report/en/
The United Nations University: Sanitation as a Key to Global Health:
www.inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2010_Sanitation_PolicyBrief.pdf
International Medical Corps: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene:
www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/programs/water-sanitation-and-hygiene
UNDP: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Portfolio:
US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health: A natural history of hygiene:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2542893/
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: Safe drinking water and improved sanitation: The key to long-term community health: