#mylittlepony - #The Ludicrous Canterlot Housing Regulations AKA The Princess Standard™

The Ludicrous Canterlot Housing Regulations AKA The Princess Standard™

AKA one of the primary causes of the Canterlot housing crisis.

Or so I imagine, having tried designing a Canterlot residence floor plan for ponies.

Headcanon time:

• Facing into the camera, standing on all fours and with their head held high, the average pony is roughly 4 ft tall, 1 ft wide, and 2 ft deep.

• A fully grown alicorn (Celestia-sized) is about 50% bigger. That is to say, the dimensions are scaled roughly uniformly to 150% (6 x 1.5 x 3), horn excluded. Celestia's horn is about 1 ft tall, leaving the true size to about 7 x 1.5 x 3. Each wing adds about 4 ft to the width when fully flared.

• Rearing up on one's hind legs increases the height by at most about 50% (horn excluded).

  • For average pony, this new height is 6 ft + horn.
  • For Celestia, this new height is 9 ft + horn = 10 ft.

• Canterlot city planning is run by the upper class and nobles, mostly unicorns.

• Out-of-touch housing regulators (again, mostly upper class/noble unicorns), couldn't possibly tolerate or fathom a home that wasn't designed for the princess's size. Hence The Princess Standard™.

Where does that lead, you might ask?

The most basic design problem is a hallway. You probably don't want it to be one-way. The Princess Standard™ would thus dictate that the hallway must be at least 3 ft wide.

Except, of course, if you want to be able to turn. Humans have the very handy ability of being able turn around without changing much the amount of width taken up. Ponies, though? In a 3-foot-wide hallway, the average pony would barely be able to turn without blocking the other half (though they would be the only one to be able to turn at that point).

However, we're working with The Princess Standard™, damn it. Celestia would end up blocking the whole hallway. We can't very well expect the princess of all ponies to sit down on her haunches and turn while flashing her under-barrel to all unscrupulous ponies! Perish the thought.

Thus The Princess Standard™ ought to demand at least 4 ft for one turning pony, 5 ft for two turning ponies, or the golden 6 ft for two turning princesses. The former two, of course, are shameful and the hallways of a peasant, who would dare think themselves a princess's equal. Obviously then, the regulators should've settled for 6 ft.

But of course, any decent host would want to line the walls with the finest furniture or just have a bit of breathing space. Thus The Princess Standard™ defines a minimum width of 8 ft.

But what about head space? The Princess Standard would require at least a foot between a chandelier and the horn of a princess. If the average chandelier was 1 ft tall, this would leave us with 9 ft. However, the princess might need rear up in a show of force. This would push the ceiling to 12 ft.

"What about prancing, though?" you ask. While there are rumors of the princess partaking in such activities (and the gentry would never confirm such filth, good heavens), prancing like flaring one's wings is considered a faux pas. Thus 12 ft is The Princess Standard™ minimum ceiling height.

All of this leads to a cross section of 8 x 12 ft or 96 ft². For a hallway. Consider that the average human residential hallway is roughly 4 x 9 ft or 36 ft² or about a third that of The Princess Standard™. No wonder the princess refuses to grace the human world.

Next question: How big is a bathroom in floor space?

Let's assume it's rectangular. It has a toilet, a bath, a sink, and some closets.

• The toilet booth (obviously a booth) needs only one "path" but one needs to be able to turn.
  • Width is a minimum of 4 ft, or 6 ft for breathing space.
  • If a sitting toilet is used, the seat itself is about 1.5 ft wide and deep. Let's say 2 ft deep to include the water closet, or 3 ft to make it easier on the tail. The seat doesn't need to be raised off the floor.
  • The door of the toilet booth itself is at least 2-3 ft wide depending on if one may enter sideways.
  • Thus the toilet booth according to The Princess Standard™ is clearly at least 6 x 10 ft.

• The bathtub depends on if it is raised or built into the floor. Given that height is already a problem, only the most luxurious of buildings build it into the floor. Thus, The Princess Standard™ here will dictate specifically for a raised tub.

  • The inner height of the tub must be enough to cover a lying princess, or about 2 ft minimum, which gives just enough room for a princess to step in, assuming she's not rearing.
  • Entering a princess-sized raised bath tub is a pain. Thus there is usually room for a step stool onto a platform and into the tub. The platform is typically 3 x 3 ft. An extreme rise over run of 1 for the steps gives a minimum run of 2 ft for the step stool. Seeing as nopony wants to stub their hoof, the whole thing is built into the tub.
  • Thus the tub would need to be at least 5 ft wide and 2 ft high. For ultimate comfort, the tub needs to be at least 15 ft deep, including the platform and step stools. That is The Princess Standard™ minimum.

• The sink wouldn't need to be terribly big. It would obviously be on the floor, about a hoof (4 in) high at most. Width is about 3 ft, possibly with a wide tap. Depth is about 1 ft.

  • Space is required to stand and orientate, about 3 x 3 ft, or 4 x 4 ft for breathing space.
  • Thus The Princess Standard™ dictates about 4 x 5 ft for the sink.

• The closet dimensions are harder to estimate, but going with beach towels as an estimate, each closet needs to be at least 6 ft wide and 1 ft deep, giving the princess a bit of breathing space for her wings at the beach. Doors (double in this case) are also 3 ft wide. Meaning that each closet takes up 6 x 4 ft.

  • There must also be a minimum of 3 x 3 ft or 4 x 4 ft for orientation and loading.
  • Thus The Princess Standard™ dictates a minimum of 6 x 7 ft for the closet area.

• There needs to be enough space to preen feathers. The Princess Standard™ thus dictates a minimum of 10 x 3 ft for preening space.

• Each "path" inside the bathroom needs to be minimum 3 ft wide as well for maneuvering.

• The door to enter the bathroom is minimum of 3 ft wide and thus requires at least a 3 x 3 ft to 6 x 6 ft area, depending on setup.

Organizing this bathroom in a sensible manner, we have (not to scale):

+----+ |D B| | PB| | PB| | | |TSCC| |TSCC| +----+ 

To meet the Princess Standard™, this bathroom would need to be at least 16 x 28 ft or about 450 ft² or about 40 m².

AKA about the size of a human city apartment with two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom.

All for a pony bathroom.

For comparison, the area of a human bathroom is about a quarter of that.

General rule of thumb (hoof?): The Princess Standard™ takes up 4 times the floor space, 4/3 the vertical space, or about 5 times the volume space of a normal human residence.

Or to put it another way, pony floor dimensions are twice that of a human floor dimensions.

At least in Canterlot.

And nevermind that wasted vertical space if you're not a unicorn. Somewhat wasted if you're a pegasus. Definitely wasted if you're an earth pony.

Thanks, upper class/noble unicorns. It's not like we can expand the city horizontally.

Submitted January 16, 2020 at 06:31PM by vorxil
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/ept8l5/the_ludicrous_canterlot_housing_regulations_aka/?utm_source=ifttt