Adaptable Housing Design: Planning for the Future

As Canada’s population ages, adaptable housing design, also known as adaptive housing, is becoming increasingly important. This type of housing prioritizes flexibility and accessibility. By implementing adaptive designs, you’ll have a functional home that evolves to meet your changing needs over time while keeping it modern and aesthetically pleasing.

When people think of adaptable housing design, they often think of more obvious accessibility features like handrails or grab bars. While these are essential for many, they might not be necessary for you now if you have no mobility or safety concerns. We understand why you wouldn’t want to install these from day one since such modifications can sometimes clash with preferred aesthetic choices.

Instead, when discussing adaptable housing, we want to focus on incorporating more discreet yet effective features that can be adapted as your needs evolve. By implementing forward-thinking accessibility strategies now, you ensure your home remains functional and comfortable through various life stages without compromising style or comfort.

Learn more about what adaptable design is all about

Top Adaptable and Accessible Considerations for Your Home

1. Install Extra Wall Backing

Incorporating extra wall backing during renovation or construction is a forward-thinking approach to adaptable housing. To do this, we reinforce walls in strategic areas, such as bathrooms and along staircases, where grab bars and handrails might later be needed.

By preparing these supports inside the walls, homeowners can easily install safety features down the line without additional structural modifications. This means they will be able to maintain aesthetic integrity better and ensure future functionality simultaneously.

2. Have Adequate Lighting

As a homeowner, ensuring your lighting fixtures enhance safety and accessibility in your home is vital, especially if you’re aiming for adaptable housing.

By strategically incorporating a mix of ambient, task, and accent lighting, you can significantly improve visibility and clarity around your home. This approach helps identify stairs and other potential hazards, preventing trips and falls. You should also choose lighting with controls that are straightforward and accessible to meet your household’s varying visual needs.

Additionally, consider maximizing natural light through well-placed windows and skylights. Focusing on natural light will reduce your reliance on artificial lighting and create a more energy-efficient and inviting home environment.

3. Keep Spaces and Designs Larger

Spacious design is a cornerstone of adaptable housing. For instance, bathrooms should be spacious enough to accommodate mobility aids like wheelchairs or walkers. Similarly, hallways and doorways should be sufficiently wide. These features make a home more accessible and easier to navigate.

This consideration extends to other room layouts throughout your house. If spaces in your home, like bedrooms and the living room, are larger, this can significantly ease mobility and reduce injury risk.

4. Choose Walk-In Showers Over Tubs

Although a beautiful soaker tub can be an eye-catching centrepiece for a luxury bathroom, it may not be the most functional. Choosing walk-in showers over traditional tubs will enhance the functionality of a bathroom in adaptable homes.

Walk-in showers eliminate the need to step over a high threshold, reducing the risk of falls and making the space accessible to everyone. Additionally, they can be equipped with seats and adjustable shower heads to cater to various needs, providing flexibility that can accommodate changes in mobility.

Talk to a maison d’etre specialist to design a functional bathroom you’ll love

5. Install Slip Resistant Floors

Your flooring choices can also greatly affect the accessibility of your home. Slip-resistant floors are essential, especially in wet areas like kitchens and bathrooms, where the risk of slips and falls is higher.

Options such as textured tiles or vinyl offer greater traction, enhancing safety for everyone, especially those with reduced mobility. These materials come in various colours and styles, allowing them to integrate seamlessly into different interior design styles.

6. Consider Automated Home Features

Have you thought about making your home more modern with added technology? If you’re considering this route, this is an excellent way to make your house more accessible.

Automated features such as smart thermostats, lights, security systems, and even motorized window treatments can enhance accessibility and ease of use. These systems can be controlled via smartphones, voice commands, or automated settings, ensuring that all residents can easily manage the home environment, regardless of their physical capabilities.

7. Use Lever Door Handles

You may not have noticed, but round door handles can be slippery and harder to use for certain people. If you want to upgrade the handles for your doors and faucets, it’s better to choose lever handles.

Unlike traditional knobs, levers are more accessible to operate for people with limited hand strength or dexterity issues such as arthritis. This small change can make a big difference in making everyday tasks more manageable and maintaining independence within your home.

8. Decrease Levels Throughout the Floors of Your Home

Minimizing the number of levels in a home, such as steps or sunken living rooms, can significantly improve accessibility. A single-story layout, or a home with a main-floor bedroom and full bathroom, can accommodate all family members, from young children to older adults.

Adaptive housing aims to ensure all areas of the house are accessible to everyone, regardless of mobility issues.

9. Pick the Right Colours

Visual cues play an essential role in adaptable housing. Using the right contrasting colours can help people navigate spaces more effectively. You can create a compelling colour palette throughout your home that aligns with your design preferences, mixing functionality and style.

For example, contrasting edges on stairs can delineate steps more clearly, reducing the risk of falls. Similarly, using different colour tones for walls, floors, and critical surfaces can enhance depth perception and spatial awareness.

Conclusion

Adaptable housing is not just about accommodating the needs of older adults or those with specific physical requirements; it’s about designing homes that grow and change with the homeowners. Integrate thoughtful, flexible design elements from the start. You can create spaces that are beautiful and functional today and prepared for whatever the future may hold.

This approach to housing design ensures that a home can remain a safe, comfortable, and loving environment throughout your various life stages, reducing the need for costly renovations or the stress of moving when needs change.

Ready to start designing a home that adapts to you? Schedule a free consultation with Maison d’être. Our experienced team specializes in creating housing designs that are modern, timeless, and adaptable. Let us help you create a space that’s aesthetically pleasing and perfectly tailored to meet your needs over time.