The expanding needs of your family increase the requirement for the accommodation too. A house for life can be built when these lifelong changes are planned for during its construction by taking careful note.
Home design that adapts to the changing needs of occupants considers a wide range of factors that extend from macro scale aspects such as dimensions, style of the façade and its assembled components, layout of rooms and their functions, to micro scale considerations such as the way surface finishes of interior walls are applied, and principles of resilience to a changing and uncertain climate.
Keep it simple
Private house space should be an adaptable open canvas to revise our domestic spaces as our lifestyle demands shift. People could stay in their houses as their needs change and not have to endure the cost and stress of relocating family and home regularly to cater for new demands. In addition, adaptable design allows for the reuse of existing structures, minimising impact on the environment. For instance, replacing regular bathroom faucets with the lever-handled variety is particularly useful for a resident with a weak hand or limited finger dexterity who might otherwise struggle to fit their hand or wrist into a tight space; widening doorways and passageways makes homes more easily transitable for wheelchair users; and the use of contrasting paint on stairs and other important surfaces can help people identify and use them better, thereby minimising the risk of accidents. Adaptable design incorporates elements of open floor plans, where a large space with minimal obstructions allows for multiple uses and ease of circulation. Supporting spatial zones, furniture or rugs can supplement an open floor plan area. The use of moveable partitions, like those designed by Bruce Mau Design for the Bookkeeper hotel in Amsterdam, can also enable varying uses – for example, a partition may permit the transformation of a study into a bedroom or vice versa.
Add storage
Our homes change with the many life events that occur over a lifetime. While in one stage you might welcome your first baby, in another you grow a home office, and in another you need to make your home fit for ageing in place. If your home is flexible enough, it will be suited to your needs throughout. Good storage is essential if you’re designing a flexible home; shelves, secret cubbyholes, made-to-measure cabinets can all help to keep clutter out of sight; spare storage could even let you convert bedrooms into home offices or hobby rooms. Adaptable home design aims to remove the necessity for the homeowner to move house as their needs change, and instead create flexible spaces that can be built for multiple uses without incurring the extra costs of moving and/or renovations. It also lessens your impact on the environment by not having to build a whole new house from scratch, and makes your house more marketable, and increase the resale value.
Create flexible spaces
Time changes the demands of homelife. Your needs will shift as will any of your dependents. If your home is designed with flexibility in mind, you can make future shifts in your family’s needs without an expensive renovation; perhaps due to an injury, grandchildren or the needs of a disabled relative – the adapting demands can simplify living in your house over time. Another reason open floor plans are so popular is because of their flexibility, but you can also design your house with sliding walls and partitions, or even smart technology that can adjust the layout to work for the life of the home. Improving accessibility is at the core of adaptable renovation projects: ramps and stairlifts to the upper floor, widening rooms to accommodate wheelchairs, grab bars and floors with non-slip bathroom tiles, smart-home controls. Your home could become accessible by people with different forms of disability; other features might include single-floor living with wider doorframes and broader hallways, and flexible pieces of furniture.
Think about the future
Due to evolution in people’s demands and lifestyles, homes need to be flexible so that people can stay living in their current home for longer, as well as reduce the cost of home renovation or moving, which might save thousands of pounds in their transaction cost. The evolution of the home must be built around and into such changes, whether by making sure buildings have open floor plans that encourage flow, or that partitions and furniture can be moved around as needed. Once children have moved out, such rooms will be reimagined as hobby spaces or studies. Lastly, we also need to plan for a future where we might no longer be able to get around as easily as we once could. Installing wider-than-average doors, lever handles and accessible bathing facilities might help to reduce the need to look for alternative accommodation further down the line, and help to combat stress and anxiety about moving, as well as the health issues associated with falling and social isolation.