Category: Magazine and newspaper articles

Home renovations and modifications for ageing in place is big business in the United States. The latest issue of Designs 4 Living is focused on home modifications and the “forever” home. Four contributors provide their design ideas on home renovations American style.

Architect Aaron D Murphy asks, Do you have “Stay at Home” Insurance? He means “can you ensure you can stay longer in your own home?” Fearing loss of independence is no reason to do nothing until it’s too late. Murphy emphasises that universal design is good for everyone and not about “hospital parts”.

The title of Karen Koch’s article is “ADA is HOOEY”. Similarly to the Australian standard for public bathrooms, the ADA is not suited to residential settings. Occupational therapist Koch provides good tips, and uses photos to explain the importance of colour contrast for ageing eyes. However, these photos have lots of grab rails and “hospital parts”. A key tip is not to mount grab bars diagonally because that requires grip strength rather than arm and shoulder strength.

Robert May talks about indoor air quality and how he learned the value of clean air. The pandemic caused him to reconsider his scepticism and learn more about it. He says, “What I learned is that if you are not filtering your air then you yourself are the filter”. May goes on to talk about different products.

Jennifer Rossetti and Todd Brickhouse look at robots and the role they can play in our lives. Some already perform everyday tasks, but the interest is in companion robots. The focus of companion robots is on older people, although there is no reason they should be age specific. However, developers are looking for replacement caregivers in residential aged care.

Read Designs 4 Living on Flipsnack.

With the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in their sights, the Queensland Government has declared 2023 the Year of Accessible Tourism. And it comes with funding. The fund will support small to medium sized tourism and events businesses to enhance their access for people with disability. The fund includes:

• $10m Accessible Tourism Queensland Fund.
• $1m Awareness and Capability Program.
• $1m Visitor Experience Development Initiative.

The Awareness and Capability Program is about raising awareness of the access requirements of visitors, workers and the community. The fund is also about building the capability of the tourism sector to support workers with disability. That includes making sure operators have the skills to employ people with disability.

The aim of the Visitor Experience Development stream is to promote the accessible tourism experience for everyone. This will include capturing images, videos and stories for marketing campaigns.

The Queensland Government wants to change the perception of what it means to be an accessible business. The aim is to support businesses to develop a wider range of accessible tourism itineraries and promote accessible tourism experiences.

While this is a great initiative, the media release makes it sound as if accessible experiences are separate from other “normal” experiences for everyone. The Queensland Government has links to resources for anyone interested in these projects.

• Tourism and Events Queensland
• Austrade Accessible Tourism Service Provision Mentoring Pilot Program
• Tourism Tropical North Queensland Accessible Hub
• QTIC Quality Tourism Accredited Business – Accessibility Module

Children with disability are the subject of Access Insight, the quarterly magazine from the access consultants association. The focus is on different formal and informal learning environments and how to make them more accessible. The magazine leads with an article on St Lucy’s School in Sydney and the final article is on technical specifications.

Architect Caroline Hart writes about St Lucy’s School which has a history of being a school for the blind. The first stage of the new development was a three-storey building with 16 purpose-built classrooms on two floors. A carpark and drop-off area formed the basement. Hart describes the project in detail, covering acoustics, lighting, communication and accessibility elements.

Designing accessible built environments is the minimum. Facilitating active participation and inclusion of children with different needs, strengths, and abilities informs practitioners’ approach to procurement, design, and delivery of spaces and places.

Image: Stanton Dahl Architects

Designing with children with disability is discussed by Mary Ann Jackson and Illanna Ginnis. Creating a design process with children with disability breaks down traditional communication structures. However, this is not without challenges. But how to make these processes inclusive using mainstream architectural thinking and design processes? Jackson and Ginnis explain their methods in their article.

Lynda Wilem tackles the subject of hearing augmentation and inclusion in the classroom. She discusses the established augmentation systems and their benefits and drawbacks. There is new technology on the way using Bluetooth systems which are already available on smart phones that connect to hearing aids. Wilem adds that augmentation systems are only part of the solution for children with low hearing.

And there’s more…

Indoor play centres is the subject of Vanessa Griffin’s article. She tells the story of advocating for an inclusive play centre in her local government area. Designer, Many Lau, raises the subject of diversity and creating supports for children in early learning centres. Allen Kong gives an overview of “Golden Cubes Awards”, a project run by the International Union of Architects. Technical aspects of handrail design for children is covered by Howard Moutrie.

You can view the magazine on issuu, and there is an option to download the 9MB PDF magazine which you might find easier to read.

Elise Roy was told at the age of ten that she would lose her hearing. But her feelings of fear turned into feelings of gratitude. That’s because she gets to experience the world in a unique way. Elise firmly believes that what helps people with disability is what will help make and design a better world. Its wrapped up in design thinking.

As a disability rights lawyer, Elise used to spend a lot of time focused on enforcing the law. However, she believes there is a better way to solve the issues other than enforcing the law – design thinking. She explains design thinking as a process for innovation and problem solving.

Elise Roy explains more in her 13 minute TEDx talk. Her explanation mirrors much of what universal design and co-design is about. There is also a transcript on the website.

“I believe that losing my hearing was one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received,” says Elise Roy. As a disability rights lawyer and design thinker, she knows that being Deaf gives her a unique way of experiencing and reframing the world — a perspective that could solve some of our largest problems. As she says: “When we design for disability first, you often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm.”

Richard Voss reminds us that all of us are ageing all the time. Consequently, we need to think ahead in the design of our cities. He makes a good point that by the time the ink dries on new access codes they are already out of date. His 5 ways to improve accessibility of cities are based on universal design principles.  These don’t date, they evolve.

First, he recommends providing incentives to include universal design features in housing.  As we know, this mitgates major renovations, especially at a time when you can least cope. Lifemark in New Zealand has the answers here.

Second, Voss says we have to wake up to the fact that we all need universal design. He points out that accessibility is not all about wheelchairs.

Third, we should combine common sense with building codes. Here Voss talks about merging universal design with heritage codes. 

Fourth, create a new innovation industry around accessibility. Voss says we should get universal design embedded in the retrofit of buildings. It will make them more sustainable and resilient as well as accessible.

Fifth, set achievable targets for each development sector. Discussions around inclusion affect every sector: workplaces, retail, hospitality, transportation, etc. Links between disciplines are essential.

Voss concludes that universal design has no extra cost if implemented early in the design process. Unfortunately, not many people believe this because from past experience, change usually means extra cost.

The article by Richard Voss was posted on Linked In. 

It’s so much easier to measure outputs than outcomes. Social value is an outcome, but how do you measure it? Well the answer for most is, it’s too hard so don’t bother. The Fifth Estate features an article about why the building industry should measure the social value of good design. 

The Women’s Property Initiatives in Melbourne provide housing for women and children. They have a system where tenants pay no more than 30 per cent of their income in rent. They knew this was working because they could see improved wellbeing. But how do you measure this social value in money terms?

So, what is social value? It is “the quantification of the importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives”. Using stated preferences methods in research is a similar idea. 

Emma Williams argues for the building industry to broaden the way they measure the success of a project. If we are to address social inequities, we have to give equal weight to social value. Measuring financial and environmental impacts is only part of the job. 

The title of the article is, The difficult task of measuring social value in the built environment. 

The Women’s Property initiative found that for every dollar invested, $11.07 of social value was created. Architects can work out the economics of green standards, but not social impact. Success of a project is about the people – that means social value. 

Does the design of parliament buildings affect democracy? An interesting question. It’s often said that the design of our environment affects our behaviours. So would that apply to houses of parliament as well?

In US politics we hear talk of ‘reaching across the aisle’. What if there was no aisle and everyone sat in a circle? We know that spatial design affects mood and communication. Hospitals are designed to promote healing and airports to minimise stress. Research by an architecture firm in Amsterdam took a look at the links between architecture and the political process.

Architecture firm XML examined as many of the 193 United Nations member states as they could and visited 15. Classroom style, horseshoes, opposing benches and semi-circles were most typical. The XML website has floor plans and 360 degree views as a preface to the book.  Seems Bangladesh has a good parliament building model (floorplan pictured).

The authors say, “Once built, parliaments are locked in time, whereas political systems can and should adapt to what is changing in the world. It is necessary to rethink our models for collective decision-making but it seems to be incredibly difficult. Architecture can be one of the ways to work and experiment with it.” There is a systematic lack of innovation in the spaces used by our elected leaders.

Some interesting points and 360 degree views of several buildings in the FastCompany article if you have access. The title of the article is, The Subtle Way Government Architecture Shapes Governments Themselves.