Raising Awareness: Inclusive Design for Architects

A day in the life of a wheelchair user: navigating Lincoln

By: Sophia Bannert

Architectural discourse has gradually become incoherent with the social and ethical needs of the contemporary city. With the relationship between theory and practice strained, lack of social relevance in design is ubiquitous. Practising architects frequently regard theory as esoteric and non-transferable, whilst many theorists do not manifest their ideas into reality and build. With the connection gripping the precipice by its fingers, this paper is conceived; written to persuade, motivate and encourage that there is real value in instigating ideas put forth in this paper. Concepts proposed are not only applicable to the city of Lincoln but are relevant and adaptable to all cities. Inspired by the architecture which has not yet manifested, it hopes to ignite the spirit needed to eradicate social inequities in urban design.

As Albert Einstein said: “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts”. In order to palpably grasp an understanding of what it is truly like to be physically disabled in Lincoln, I rented a wheelchair for one day to see for myself whether the facts fitted the theory.

Alone and small in the street, my self-awareness heightens. Large swarms of hurried people part when they see me approaching. My whole identity has changed in the eyes of the city within minutes. My wheelchair is my fortress and the enemy. With its large spindly wheels as my first and only defence, they are also my burden. Jarred into an utterly complex version of what I formerly knew as reality, my eyes begin scrutinising and dissecting the cobbled street surface ahead into zones which I can and cannot access. Never before had I seen the streetscape in such meticulous detail. Tiny height differences such as curbs and grooves between cobbles become mountains, cruelly halting progress and making small advances, exhausting. Whilst battling physical obstructions, I myself have become one. If the pavements were widened, perhaps disabled citizens wouldn’t be seen as causing an obstruction.

One of the most historic cathedral cities of Europe, renowned for its vibrant fusion of old and new, Lincoln is situated in the east midlands of England. People are attracted to the city’s picturesque cobbled streets, which weave the city body together like capillaries, constricting the flow of people in places and allowing access via tangles of short cuts, in others.

Currently witnessing an unprecedented population boom , Lincolnshire Research Observatory have released figures stating that since 2010 Lincoln has seen a sharp decrease in deaths and a dramatic rise in births. This correlation is unfolding on both a local and an international scale. Predictions from the World Health Organisation (WHO) state that within the next five years, the number of adults aged sixty-five and over will outnumber all children under the age of five. By 2050, these older adults will outnumber all children under the age of fourteen. The global population is rising at a rapid rate, raising questions about how the new third generation should be accommodated. Increased longevity may not be such a cause for celebration; this worldwide phenomenon is symbiotic with disability. WHO calculates that ‘two thirds of disabled people are over 60’. The process of aging is often accompanied by some form of disability- be it physical or mental. Disability is now more likely to affect your life than ever before. These predictions are threatening chaotic future repercussions. Our urban environment desperately needs to evolve at a rate which mirrors that of humanity.

For the complete essay, please visit the following website: http://berkeleyprize.org/competition/essay/2013/winning-essays/bannert-essay

Inclusive Design: Kitchens and Bathrooms

Walking May Help Prevent Dementia In Seniors, If Only They Could Do It Safely

By: SARAH GOODYEAR

Getting regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, may be one of the best ways to stave off dementia, a finding recently reconfirmed by yet another study.

But older Americans are the most at risk for being killed when they go out on foot in their communities, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control.

It’s just another illustration of the inherently ridiculous situation faced by a huge proportion of the American public. Even as we recognize that regular exercise is good for people of all ages – including and especially kids and senior citizens – we continue to build communities that make it especially hazardous for those very same people to go for a simple walk to the store.

As a result, too many Americans don’t get the moderate exercise that could improve their health in the course of their daily lives. The alternative is for them to drive (or be driven) to the gym, where they can pace on treadmills while looking at walls, or sit on exercise bicycles and pedal to nowhere while watching TV.

It would be funny if the consequences weren't so grave, and if we didn't have the resources and knowledge to do things differently.

Take the recent findings about exercise and dementia.

As summarized in a recent story on NPR mentioning the research of neuroscientist Art Kramer, who directs the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, aerobic exercise has proven effective in increasing the brain health of older adults:

Kramer did a study in which he scanned the brains of 120 older adults, half of whom started a program of moderate aerobic exercise — just 45 minutes, three days a week, mostly walking. After a year, the MRI scans showed that for the aerobic group, the volume of their brains actually increased.

What's more, individuals in the control group lost about 1.5 percent of their brain volume, adding up to a 3.5 percent difference between individuals who took part in aerobic exercise and those who did not. Further tests showed that increased brain volume translated into better memory.

Kramer's research echoes numerous other studies. Neuroscientist Peter Snyder, a researcher at Brown University's Alpert Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital, told NPR the evidence is mounting that moderate aerobic exercise — walking — could be the best thing older adults can do to maintain mental sharpness.

"What we're finding is that of all of these noninvasive ways of intervening, it is exercise that seems to have the most efficacy at this point — more so than nutritional supplements, vitamins and cognitive interventions," says Snyder, who studies what we can do to maintain memory as our brains age.... "The literature on exercise is just tremendous," he says. "What we find is that with exercise — with aerobic exercise, a moderate amount on a regular basis — there are chemical changes that occur in the brain that promote the growth of new neurons in [the hippocampus]."

 

And yet the streets of many American communities are designed in such a way that taking a simple walk can be a life-threatening proposition, especially for older people, who might move more slowly and have limited vision or other disabilities. The CDC figures show thatpedestrians over the age of 75 are twice as likely to be killed while walking as members of the general population. Yet key lawmakers continue to block funding for better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, ensuring that more roads and bridges get built without accommodations for people outside of motor vehicles. 

And so our society's mixed messages continue. You should get up and go for a walk! The Surgeon General says it’s good for you in every way!

But wait a second – you know you’d be crazy to go for a walk on that busy street near your house, right? You can’t move fast enough to cross that road, which is being used by important people who are commuting long distances to their jobs. Oh, and since older drivers are less safe as well, driving to the gym might not be such a great idea for you after all. Public transportation? We don’t have the money for that. Times are hard, after all.

The simple ability to walk near one's home should be a human right. But even if you don't believe that, it is a public health issue that costs our rapidly aging nation country big money in increased health care costs.

The more insidious toll it takes on the bodies, minds, and spirits of older people who stay inside their homes, looking out, is harder to measure. But it is no less real.

Top image: David W. Leindecker/Shutterstock.com

Inclusive Design for Streets: People of All Ages and Abilities

Seniors: Walkability Benefits for an Aging Public

March 12th, 2013 by Jocelyn Milici Ceder

Baby boomers are retiring in droves in an unprecedented American demographic shift. The last Baby Boomer turns 65 in 2030, so we still have two decades of an aging chunk of the public. A growing body of research points to the importance of designing or retrofitting communities forwalkability to accommodate senior citizens and allow them to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle upon retirement. Walkable neighborhoods help seniors remain active, healthy, social and free to move around. How?

1. Quality of Life While Aging in Place

Many retirees choose to age in place—to avoid moving and remain in their homes as long as possible. But since baby boomers were the generation that built suburbia, many will want to maintain a quality of life in unwalkable neighborhoods.

Older adults socialize more when living in walkable neighborhoods. According to the EPA, in an age-friendly walkable neighborhood or town, regular social interaction is possible, convenient and more frequent. The American Journal of Public Health published a study published a study that reveals older people living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social interaction compared with those residing in car-dependent burbs. Living in walkable neighborhoods means you are more likely to know your neighbors, participate in politics, engage socially and even trust people.

2. Transportation + Mobility to Leave the House

Independence builds self-worth and being able to move around your neighborhood is freeing. “More than 20 percent of Americans age 65 or older do not drive. Of those, more than half — about 3.6 million people — stay home on any given day because they have no transportation, AARP says,” from a Washington Post article. Men outlive their “drive-ability” by 7 years, women by 10 years. Public transit becomes key for allowing seniors to remain independent. “A 2002 study by the National Institute on Aging found that about 600,000 people who are 70 or older stop driving every year and become dependent on other forms of transportation.”

A 2003 Brookings Institution study found that 79% of seniors age 65 and older live in car-dependent suburban and rural communities. But older adults increased their use of public transit by 40% between 2001 and 2009. About 15% of those over age 65 use public transit at least once time per month and more than half of them need specialized transportation, according to Placemaking article.

AARP’s report Advancing Mobility Options states, “One of the keys to economic and health security for adults age 50+ is their continued access to a range of viable mobility options within the community. Lack of such options can have a profound impact on how ‘livable’ communities are and have a negative impact on the quality of life enjoyed by older adults in those communities.” Public transportation boosts mobility of seniors. The Street used Walk Score to determine 10 cities where you can retire without having to use a car—around the country from Seattle to Miami.

For the complete article and additional information, please visit the WalkScore Blog:

http://blog.walkscore.com/2013/03/seniors-walkability-benefits-for-an-aging-public/

Inclusive Design for Communities: Living in Place

Rethinking senior living models

March 15, 2013 

by Leslie G. Moldow FAIA, LEED AP

In the wake of the recent Great Recession our world has changed, specifically concerning the senior living industry. Capital has become largely unavailable and the next generation of seniors—the plentiful baby boomers—generally wants different services and housing models from those offered to their parents. To keep up with the changes, the ways in which existing communities operate and provide services must be reconsidered, and many organizations will need to rethink and realign how they meet their mission.

Outmoded communities can refurbish by simply splashing on a new coat of paint, installing new carpeting and ordering new furnishings. This type of facelift helps over the short term, but it does not specifically address the new realities that many face as senior living providers.

Communities can restore and renovate by adding a number of useful new spaces such as cafés, movie theaters and exercise rooms as well as altering unit plans by combining apartments and even relocating certain services for greater convenience among residents. This will make existing models more relevant and user friendly, but such changes fail to address the larger underlying issues.

Currently, senior living providers of continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) only serve between 2 and 7 percent of the age- and income-eligible target market. According to AARP’s 2011 Boomer Housing Study, nearly 84 percent of those surveyed expressed a strong preference to stay in the places and communities they have called home. Whether this is a realistic expectation or denial of their future need for care is irrelevant. Our industry must find ways to serve the approximate 93 percent of seniors who do not embrace the traditional CCRC model. We must meet their expectations of aging in place, feeling at home and staying connected within a vibrant community setting.

NEW EXPECTATIONS

So what does the baby boomer generation expect and what models exist that can meet their expectations? While there is no single answer, this generation wants responses tailored to their needs. The good news is senior living providers can develop more options, think more innovatively and create more diverse market niches than ever before. There need not be one response; we need to think differently. We need to restructure our projects, develop new partnerships, think beyond our property lines and experiment with new concepts. Both existing and new senior living communities need to be connected in a multitude of ways to the life that exists beyond their walls.

The suburban model for senior living, self-contained on about 30 acres, is unsustainable and increasingly undesirable in many parts of the United States; most seniors want to be part of something interconnected. There are at least two viable options for shifting the existing CCRC model.

The first is to create an “inside-out community.” Take all the functions and features that are typically used exclusively by senior living community residents and re-situate them along the area’s perimeter, so that the greater community in which the CCRC is located can make use of key amenities as well. According to Maria Dwight of Gerontological Services, Inc., a specialty senior living market research firm, “Amortizing the fixed overhead of the facility and services costs to the broader community is a win-win for everyone. It reduces duplication of operating expenses, and infuses the CCRC with new energy and opportunities. It is good business and good marketing.”

This “inside-out” approach might involve turning the community dining hall into a full-service restaurant or the café into a coffeehouse that attracts more than just resident clientele. Perkins Eastman’s interior architecture for Baptist Housing Ministry does this with a new residential care facility in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, called The Heights at Mount View. The facility’s ground floor will be dedicated to the neighborhood at large, replete with an Internet café, children’s play area and art gallery, community lounge and centralized town hall.

The second model is demonstrated by our work with Dallas-based care provider C.C. Young. Its community center serves both residents and the greater community. By partnering and working with more than 60 organizations, C.C. Young has created—from scratch, as opposed to enhancing and repositioning existing resources—a series of inviting programs within a senior center venue that attracts the broader community. This integration of the community with senior residents helps meet the socialization needs of all, while providing opportunities for more partnerships.

C.C. Young’s main building, developed on the edge of the community center’s campus, includes a library, art room, café, music hall and other amenities. The venue has benefitted from numerous program partnerships with organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas and Faith Artists, which have helped provide relevant activities for seniors on campus and in the greater community.

For the full article, visit the following website link: http://www.ltlmagazine.com/article/rethinking-senior-living-models

Inclusive Residential Design: Elevators for Baby Boomers

HOUSE DESIGN

Elevator sales rise as Canadians ditch the stairs at home

Image: Domenico Daprocida stands inside the doorway of his residential elevator inside his custom built home in Calgary, Alberta on March 05, 2013. (Chris Bolin for The Globe and Mail)

_________________________________

Once an outlandish frill for the ultrarich, home elevators are being remade and rebranded for the well-off, and are inching toward the ranks of once-rare residential features – such as swimming pools or granite counter tops – that have become more commonplace.

Whether it’s baby boomers looking for a home they’ll never have to leave, or families who want a three- or four-storey house on a tight inner-city lot, it seems another $20,000-$30,000 for an elevator isn’t going to break the bank for Canadians who can afford to pay $1-million or more for a new home.

“I had never really considered an elevator,” said Calgarian Domenico Daprocida, 41. “But it wasn’t as unaffordable as I initially thought.”

After city officials told him the attached garage of his new 4,400 square-foot house had to be underground, not on the main level, to reduce its visual impact, he knew he had to change the design.

Hauling groceries up a flight of stairs with two young sons in tow wasn’t going to work.

“If you’ve got a bunch of flights of stairs to get up, it’s a little tough,” said Mr. Daprocida, a restaurateur and home builder who has moved back to Calgary after a decade of constructing houses (none with elevators) for oil-sands workers in Fort McMurray.

He ended up with a three-stop, hydraulic elevator – with a stainless steel sliding door and custom window – at a final cost of about $29,000. Construction on the house, which overlooks a golf course, is nearing completion, and Mr. Daprocida and his wife, Maria, are looking forward to the evenings when they can carry their five-year-old son from the car to the elevator, and then straight to bed on the second floor without breaking a sweat.

Hard numbers in Canada are hard to come by because no central body keeps track of home elevators, and no licence is required, as there is for commercial systems. But manufacturers say Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary lead the market. In Calgary, the two biggest home elevator companies report together they installed at least 80 home elevators in 2012, up even from the building boom years of 2007 and early 2008.

Canadians, it seems, are at least as keen on home elevators as Americans. For instance, the hilly city of Los Angeles – with a population more than three times that of Calgary’s – issued permits for 529 home elevators in the past five years.

Rudimentary lifts have long been installed in homes for people who have trouble with stairs, and today’s demand is partly driven by baby boomers who want to “age in place.” Since it’s more costly to retrofit houses with elevators than to put them in new ones, lifts could become a selling point. Mr. Daprocida is counting on his home’s elevator to broaden the potential pool of buyers when he eventually decides to sell. “Senior citizens would love a house like this,” he said.

Kathy Yuen, president of Phase One Design – a Calgary home building firm that specializes in luxury and inner-city homes – said discretionary elevators were rare just a few years ago. Now, she said, almost one in five of her company’s projects have an elevator.

“It’s becoming more commonplace, almost to a point where that is always a discussion that we have with our clients in the initial design meetings,” Ms. Yuen said. “Seven years ago, that would not have been the case.”

Home elevator manufacturers offer interior finishes such as maple, red oak and cherry wood, or even a full glass enclosure – with either an accordion gate or a sliding door. And the elevators are getting more posh. Simon Snaith, dealer sales manager at Cambridge Elevating in Cambridge, Ont., said some new systems are “decked out” with special lights, mirrors, audio systems and iPads for the car’s operating panel.

“A lot of the disposable income is with retirees, and they’re buying a lot of upper-scale homes,” Mr. Snaith said. “It becomes just another amenity, another option.”

The changing way Canadian houses are built might also fuel demand for home elevators. Even in Calgary, where the suburbs spread across the Prairie and along the foothills, people with money are increasingly looking for a prime lot close to work downtown. The demand for more indoor living space means tearing down old houses and building up instead of out.

“People are going vertical,” said Steve Poffenroth, a salesman for Canwest Elevator and Lifts, the company installing Mr. Daprocida’s lift system.

“We’re doing a lot of four-stop elevators where we start in the garage and basically go right up through the middle of the house to a lofted bedroom space in the top. We’re doing some that are 40 feet tall.”

Canwest originally focused on medically necessary lifts. But Mr. Poffenroth said 70 per cent of the company’s home elevator sales now are “for people that don’t rely on the elevator, per se.”

“We have a lot of clients that take the approach, ‘Look, we’re building a whatever-million-dollar house. We might as well put it in, even if we don’t have the need for it, up front.’”

OHRC Submission on proposed changes to the Ontario Building Code

Ontario Human Rights Commission

Submission Regarding
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Proposed changes to the barrier-free requirements of the Ontario Building Code Regulation

March 1, 2013

Overview

The Ontario Government is proposing amendments to the barrier-free requirements of the Ontario Building Code regulation involving renovations, paths of travel, vertical access, visitable suites in multi-unit residential buildings, adaptable design and construction, visual fire alarms, washrooms, as well as use of educational materials and resources and other changes. Typically changes to the Building Code do not take effect for 12 to 18 months to allow the building and design industry to plan for and adjust to new requirements.

This initiative is part of the goal of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises by January 1, 2025.

The Government-appointed Accessible Built Environment Standards Development Committee submitted a final proposed standard in 2010 covering buildings and outdoor spaces. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) made a submission on the Committee’s initial proposed standards.^[1] The OHRC’s recommendations in this submission on the Building Code are consistent with its past submissions.^[2]

The Government’s approach is to continue to regulate barrier-free building requirements through the Building Code, which allows them to be enforced locally through the building permit process. Building Code requirements apply based on class of building; unlike AODA regulations which apply based on class of obligated organization.

The proposed changes relate to the construction, extensive renovation, and change-in-use of buildings.^[3] There are no proposals to incorporate non-building design elements (e.g., millwork, finish materials, fixtures and non-building equipment, colours and furniture) nor the maintenance and operations of buildings into the Building Code. Barrier-free “retrofits” of existing buildings (where no renovations are planned) would not be required either.

The OHRC recognizes that accessibility requirements have been enhanced with each new edition of the Building Code regulation and welcomes the latest proposal for new barrier-free design requirements.

The OHRC supports continuing the “objective-based” approach first introduced in the 2006 Building Code. This approach sets out the rationale underlying the technical provisions, including barrier-free accessibility, and encourages innovation and flexibility in meeting requirements. This permits the possibility of adapting the accessibility requirements to unique circumstances in order to achieve the same objective with alternative solutions. This may be particularly helpful where a requirement might otherwise be unfeasible in the circumstances.

The OHRC has a number of concerns about the proposed changes as well as additional recommendations for barrier-free requirements in the Building Code regulation:

As the OHRC has recommended in previous submissions, the Building Code regulation should set out basic human rights principles to help guide overall interpretation of the accessibility provisions including:

• Create no new barriers
• Design inclusively
• Identify and remove existing barriers
• Favour integration (inclusive design) over segregation
• Provide interim or next best measures where full accommodation is not feasible
• Consider and accommodate individual needs short of undue hardship by exploring solutions through a cooperative process that maximizes confidentiality and respect

Pan Am / Parapan Athletes' Village: Design Award

2015 Pan Am/Parapan American Games Athletes’ Village | Canary District

Canadian Architect

Dundee Kilmer Integrated Design Team: Joint Venture of architectsAlliance and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in association with Daoust Lestage Inc. and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects

Initially, the project will provide a home away from home for more than 10,000 athletes and officials participating in the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. Following the Games, the Village will convert into the Canary District, a sustainable mixed-use neighbourhood for people at all stages of life and income levels, including market and affordable housing, student housing for George Brown College, and a new YMCA community centre.

The site stands at the eastern edge of downtown Toronto on the 32-hectare West Don Lands, bordered by the Don River, King Street East, Parliament Street, and the rail line adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway. Front Street East, one of the city’s major arterials, extends through the site to terminate at the Don River Valley.

For the full article and more information, visit the website of Canadian Architect at the following link: http://awards.canadianarchitect.com/?portfolio=2015-pan-amparapan-american-games-athletes-village-canary-district

Inclusive Design in Toronto: Evaluating Sidewalk Surfaces

Pilot project to evaluate sidewalk surfaces

Inclusive Design at Harmony Village

Boomers Aim to Age in Urban Communities

The survey indicates that developers are increasingly going to need to build total communities, rather than simply residences. More than exercise rooms and swimming pools, future amenities will need to include opportunities for social life and leisure within the local region, and convenient healthcare options.

Jack Pong, CEO of City Core Developments—the developer behind Harmony Village—says that it's vital to identify the needs of seniors as they move into the next phase of their lives. "Seniors are interested in being closer to urban communities, they want more services... whether it's a library or health and wellness." He also emphasized the importance of the social element as people get to retirement age, in particular "social interaction with like-minded people," which is an area that Harmony Village is focusing on by building seniors-specific residential areas. Pong agreed that these new wants and needs are a part of the larger contemporary return to urban areas by young individuals, families, and companies.

Survey Highlights Include:

• 76% of boomers/seniors believe an independent lifestyle is very important as they enter the retirement stage of their lives.
• 81% of boomers/seniors believe easily accessible amenities, such as grocery stores, restaurants, drug stores and more are important.
• 65% finds there are limited options available to them for this type of community living.

Harmony Village is currently being designed with the survey results in mind. Visit the UrbanToronto dataBase page for the project below to get a look at the architectural competition entries.