Lifelong Housing

Strategies for aging in place through all periods of life from millennials through retirees
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Sponsored by Whirlpool Corporation
By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP
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Leadership by Designers and Developers

Recognizing these trends, programs, and changes in the demographics of America, architects, urban planners, and developers have begun to respond by embracing the notion of lifelong housing and begun to incorporate it into their work. In some cases, this response has been due to client requests, while others have been proactively leading the way.

Certified Aging In Place Specialist logo.

Source: NAHB

The National Association of Home Builders has developed a program for certified aging-in-place specialists who can assess housing for changing needs as occupants age.

Sarah Susanka, FAIA: The Not-So-Big House

Most people involved in any residential design work have likely come across Sarah Susanka’s popular work. With nine best-selling books to her credit, she has engaged the public in learning about effective, efficient, and creative residential design principles. In 2012, she participated in a demonstration program known as the Not-So-Big Showhouse, which was built in a dense, urban setting in Libertyville, Illinois. It incorporated some of the common features and principles that her work has become known for: efficient, affordable layouts that align with good natural lighting and three-dimensional spaces that are articulated cohesively. In addition to features that millennials would enjoy, such as open space in a very comfortable, energy-efficient design, she also incorporated aspects of flexibility that help with lifelong housing. In particular, she has included a first-floor “away room,” which can serve as a home office, a guest room, or even a play room for kids. It is located just off of a mudroom and bathroom area, which means it is readily adaptable to become a first-floor, accessible bedroom suite should someone need such a space. She also does not include a formal dining room, opting instead for a space-efficient eating booth in the kitchen. If a large holiday meal is planned, the kitchen table is readily movable into the main living area and can accommodate a crowd. The concepts behind this house have now been taken further to the Not-So-Big Working Lab in Lake Zurich, Illinois, where additional homes are incorporating these same ideas.

Matthias Hollwich: New Aging

Architect and millennial Matthias Hollwich has taken a look at aging in America and did not like what he saw. The typical cold, sterile nursing homes that provided residents with boredom and a loss of freedom and vitality is not the vision that he thought worthy of our futures. He has taken the position that instead of storing the elderly in nursing homes, we need to reimagine how our living spaces are designed so that nursing homes become obsolete. So, with the help of his architecture firm Hollwich Kushner and the University of Pennsylvania, he has started a movement to change the way we experience aging based on the premise that while our needs evolve as we age, our desire to enjoy life does not. “Aging is part of life. It is what makes us who we are,” says Hollwich. “But the way our society is aging is an outdated model, and we need to change that—immediately.”

New Aging cover.

Source: HWKN & Bruce Mau Design © 2016

Architect Matthias Hollwich has examined alternatives to traditional living conditions for an aging population and encourages planning when people are in their 40s for how they will live in their 70s.

His book New Aging: Live Smarter Now to Live Better Forever by Matthias Hollwich with Jennifer Krichels and illustrations by Robert Samuel Hanson of Bruce Mau Designs has been described as a manifesto.4 It is a call for people to take charge of their lives and reshape their living spaces to accommodate how their needs will change as they age so that aging will be less of a disruption and more of an adventure. The book lays out their work on aging and architecture into a collection of short, principled passages designed to help others think creatively and realistically about how we want to spend the rest of our lives. The advice ranges from practical design tips for making homes safer and more comfortable to insights on how people, work, relax, travel, socialize, and even eat. Most importantly, Matthias is promoting the idea that people can make small, simple changes in their 30s or 40s so they won’t be forced to make larger ones in their 70s.

Ryan Frederick: Smart Living 360

Smart Living 360 is a real-estate development and operating company that looks at issues beyond just property development. The company was created by innovator Ryan Frederick with a vision of developing residential communities with a particular emphasis on well-being. Its stated focus is to deliver innovative living experiences that are more than basic shelter, but rather, ones that can inspire its residents, create true community, and adjust as needs change. The approach to planning is based on an understanding that our surroundings encourage greater purpose, social connection, physical and financial well-being, and a sense of community, all of which are desirable at any age. Toward that end, it has established three core principles that guide its development.

  • Connection: Creating community and promoting social connections
  • Access: Enabling access to services and amenities that enhance life
  • Simplicity: Delivering an experience that allows people to focus on what’s most important

Based on these principles and values, Smart Living 360 is working to redefine how living environments can enhance and support successful living at all ages.

Ross Chapin, FAIA: Pocket Neighborhoods

Looking beyond individual housing units, a place for lifelong living involves a neighborhood—ideally one that is conducive to a sense of community and positive interactions throughout various life stages. With that in mind, Ross Chapin, FAIA, an architect and land planner has authored Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World. He has defined pocket neighborhoods as clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space, such as a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley. The key is that this common space promotes a clear sense of shared territory and shared stewardship among the people who live around it. Such pocket neighborhoods can be in urban, suburban, or rural areas, but the important point is to create a setting where neighbors can easily know one another. That familiarity means empty nesters and single householders can find friendship or a helping hand when needed or where children can have some friendly supervision if their parents need some support. Clearly, such a neighborhood concept, with a mix of ages and lifestyles, is supportive of lifelong housing in multiple ways.5

With an understanding of the types of design issues and principles that can contribute to successful lifelong design solutions, let’s turn our attention to a few specific rooms in any living unit that receive a lot of design attention, namely, kitchens, and laundry areas.

Integrated Lifelong Design: Kitchens

Kitchens are central to all housing units and among the most used rooms in any living situation. Their size, shape, layout, and details are influenced by many factors, not the least of which is the lifestyle of the people who live there. This room often has the most built-in features too, which means if it is going to accommodate different stages of life or be readily usable for a multigenerational household, then there needs to be some inherent universal design aspects and perhaps some things that can change, adjust, or adapt to suit differing needs.

The first design priority for a kitchen in lifelong housing is to optimize the layout for use by people of all ages and capabilities. That means there has to be ample, not minimal, space for accessing and moving through and around the kitchen area. That doesn’t necessarily mean wheelchair access everywhere (although that would be ideal), but it might mean enough access for walkers, crutches, or other mobility aids. Since appliances are central to all kitchen layouts (i.e., refrigerators, stoves, etc.), those need to be located appropriately not only for easy access, but also for the opportunity to place something down adjacent to these appliances. These “landing areas” on either side are needed to provide a place to set pans, utensils, food, etc. on a countertop adjacent to the cooking appliance or refrigerator either to open or close a door, or to access needed tools or ingredients. The recommended minimum landing area size varies by appliance, but generally a minimum area of 15 by 16 inches is needed adjacent to one side of an oven or refrigerator. On cooktops or range tops, one is needed on each side, although one can be reduced to 12 by 16 inches. Further, a landing area 9 inches deep behind a cooktop is recommended on an island or when it is otherwise not located against a wall.

Photo of an open refrigerator with pullout drawers.

Photo courtesy of Whirlpool Corporation

Appliances and cabinetry that allow for easy front access and pullout drawers are more easily used by people of all generations.

In addition to horizontal layouts, the heights of kitchen features need to be considered as well. Work areas should not assume that people will only be standing but rather provide the ability to sit on a chair or stool (or roll up a wheelchair) to work. That means different heights of countertops or work surfaces are needed. Appliance heights are part of this consideration, too. Cooktops can be built into countertops of any height to allow easier access. Dishwashers can be raised up from the floor to make loading and unloading easier. Controls for any appliance can be located in front for easy access rather than requiring reaching over the top of the appliance.

Storage areas should be looked at in terms of reaching heights, too. Upper wall cabinets are being used less frequently since they are difficult to reach by many average-height standing adults and even more so by anyone sitting, as in a wheelchair. Hence, a trend has been observed that these cabinets are being replaced with lower-height, open-front shelves that provide ready access and display of things like dishes, glassware, etc. This is not only more convenient, but it works with the easy, low-maintenance lifestyles of younger homeowners, too. Similarly, instead of lower cabinets with doors concealing fixed shelves that may be difficult to reach down into, drawers are emerging as a preferred option. It is clearly easier for anyone to pull out a drawer to view and access the contents, but it can be particularly better for anyone who has trouble bending or kneeling down.

Building on the concepts above, AARP has some specific recommended strategies for kitchens in the interest of making them usable for people of all ages:

  • Provide different-height kitchen countertops to create options for use by a child, a tall person, and someone who prefers to sit rather than stand while preparing a meal. These can be fixed-in-place countertops or they can be adjustable such that they can be raised up on adjustable legs or collapsed and lowered down when appropriate. Specifically, different surfaces that are different heights ranging from 29 to 36 inches or an adjustable surface that can raise and lower within that range to suit a person’s needs are ideal. This presumes that a chair, whether with wheels or not, or a stool can be placed appropriately with leg room under the work surface, not with a base cabinet in the way.
  • Provide storage in locations that don’t require lifting things overhead. In order to increase usable storage, include pullout drawers, trays, and other accessories that allow better organization.

Specify stoves, dishwashers, and refrigerators that minimize or eliminate hazards, such as reaching over a hot burner to adjust the controls. Further, consider electric induction heating, which heats up pots and pans but not the cooktop, creating an inherently safer situation to begin with. It also tends to be more energy efficient and more responsive to temperature adjustments than even a gas-fired cooktop or range.

Photo of a convection cooktop.

Photo courtesy of Whirlpool Corporation

Convection cooktops provide a degree of safety since they heat up cooking utensils but not cooktop surfaces.

  • Evaluate appliance locations for usability by people with varying abilities, and locate the appliances to minimize lifting or bending. For instance, placing a microwave oven above the range may prove to be less accessible compared to building it into a wall cabinet at a lower, more accessible height.
  • Consider installing a second sink near the cooking area and include a pullout spray faucet. Doing so is handy for filling a pot with water for boiling—and then emptying that pot without having to carry it across the kitchen.

These and other ideas go a long way toward creating kitchens that can be accessible, efficient, and well designed in all respects to suit all users.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in December 2016

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