Homes designed with flexibility in mind | #ForAccessibleHomes News

Accessible home design has a reputation for being niche, but actually is not just for wheelchair users or older people, good access is good for everyone! If we have the choice, why wouldn’t we make sure our homes were more welcoming to all of our friends and family whose needs may be different to our own (perhaps granny with a walking aid, or your newly toddling niece or nephew).

I'd like to encourage everyone to see inclusive design as an interesting and exciting design approach for life-long happy homes (disabled or not) and to break the perception that accessibility is all ugly plastic grab rails and old fashioned stair lifts.

I want to see the design media begin to celebrate design that is flexible for a variety of needs, a design that not only works for you, your children, your parents or your grandchildren but that is also stylish and ‘ideal home’ worthy! I’m really excited to be giving a talk just after the #ForAccessibleHomes campaign day at the Cambridge Home + Garden Show to try and do a little bit of just that.

If a home is designed with flexibility in mind, it will last longer, cost less over the lifetime of the house and be changeable without being wasteful. It will be more sustainable. Good inclusive design should allow everyone to be able to participate as fully with family life (as they want to!) as naturally as possible. What can be a more ‘ideal home’ than that?

Vaila Morrison is a parent, carer and an architect with a passion for inclusive design and sustainability. You can find her at www.theinclusivehome.co.uk and on twitter @inclusivehome.

#ForAccessibleHomes day is Friday 8 September 2017. Join the conversation on social media @Habinteg and search #ForAccessibleHomes.