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Comment by rjtobin | Hacker News Reader

I visited some dorm rooms in Croatia once, and they had a nice solution to this problem. Both doors opened inward, with the non-hinge side of the doors sitting very close to one of the walls with no doors. Instead of a conventional lock, a narrow piece of wood ran the length of this no-door wall that could be rotated to block both doors simultaneously.

This is like the solution in the article, except deals with the "opens-inwards" case instead of the "open-outwards" case, and is less fumble-y than having to attach a rope to both doors.

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I've seen a similar solution in the swimming pool changing cubicles at a Center Parcs in the UK. The cubicles have two inwards opening doors opposite one another. Once inside, you close both doors and fold down a bench which blocks the doors shut and gives you somewhere to sit. Very clever solution.

Except if there is a fire and you realise it's stuck. A normal lock can be kicked in if not opened with master key, but that contraption sounds hard to break in to.

I feel like a fire at a swimming pool might be more rare than a fire elsewhere, just by virtue of being surrounded by water (pool, showers, etc). Maybe I'm wrong.

True. You might get smoke from somewhere else in the building though.

A fire? At a sea parks?

I'm imagining that doors on "swimming pool changing cubicles" are flimsy enough to kick outwards.

No idea about this specific example, but if it is anything like normal bathroom locks, I'd expect that you'd be able to rotate the bench back upwards with some sort of key/screwdriver/lever from the outside.

I'd worry about someone being ill while sat/leaning-on/collapsed on the bench though meaning you cant rotate it. I guess this is an issue for any door where a body could block it being opened? At the least in a changing room cubicle these are usually open at the top so someone could climb over in an emergency.

There are large gaps above and below, plus the hinges are plastic and the walls are plastic covered chipboard (or something similar.

The bench lifting is part of the system - you can't leave rubbish or water on the bench.

You could solve a safety access issue by having the bench corner removed and replaced with a breakable component; but I'd speculate the materials are such the hinges already serve that purpose and changing the corners would lead to a lot of accidental breakage.

There is better solution used everywhere else.

The bench stays in place. Both locks are linked by a bar, that can be conveniently hidden under the bench. When rotating any lock, they both rotate together.

If you have to fold the whole bench to get out you are less likely to accidentally leave something behind. But I guess the real reason for this design is probably that folding the bench saves some space.

Wow, thank you. I have been struggling forming the mental picture in my head of how the leather rope could work... I didn't even think that the doors would be opening outwards from the bathroom.

Upvoted :)

You could leave your door open and still lock out the other in this case.

I think assuming malice the problem becomes much harder.

I wasn't thinking malice actually. You might just want to use the bathroom with your own door open and not think anything of it.

In that situation the open outwards/rope solution is indeed more save.

In your case you could design it such that you can’t close the door after use without unblocking the other one. Typically people would like to close the door to the bathroom after usage.

Do you have a picture or a diagram of this? I'm finding it hard to visualize.

|\ /| imagine those being the doors slightly open into the room.

Now here it is with the doors shut and the wood beam between them. ||__||

Can’t open either inward until the beam moves.

The thing in the middle is a stick attached to the wall on a hinge.

View from above - open:

  |\__.__/|

View from above - closed:

  ||_____||

The whole thing at “face level” with the pushing beams sliding in guiding loops.

I just can't believe I understood the whole concept so easily by the creative use of ASCII characters!!

Thanks.

But if the beam somehow fell/rotated in place while no one was in there with the doors closed, you'd be locked out without a non-destructive way to unlock it.

The same issue applies if the person inside is unconscious or otherwise unable to help.

You make the beam weak - strong enough to avoid accidental breakage, weak enough that a solid shoulder will break it. You also make the rotation cammed in such a way that gravity holds the beam failed open.

As used in pretty much every swimming pool I've ever been to.

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