FUNCTIONAL INTERIORS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS 4(2+2)

Lesson 6: Housing Environments for Special purposes and Needs: Adapted / Adaptable

Introduction

Adaptable housing is 'housing for life'. It can accommodate anybody, allowing for diverse needs, lifestyles and age groups for now and the future. Adaptable housing refers to dwellings with design features that are easily adapted at a later date to flex with the changing needs of the occupants. Adaptable housing is built with the potential to be easily and cost effectively adapted to suit an individual’s needs should it be required at a later stage. A life cycle house includes fixed accessible features (wider doors and halls, open floor spaces, clear traffic patterns, etc.). It also provides for adaptable features, such as wall reinforcement for grab bars and removable base cabinets for future knee space. A simple example is tiling the kitchen floor before fitting cupboards, so that if a cupboard needs to be removed to provide knee-space under a bench later on, the floor remains intact. This means the adaptations require less work at less cost.