By Guest Blogger Susan M. Duncan, Instructor, Executive Certificate in Home Modification, National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification, University of Southern California.

“I wish I had a pretty house, the littlest ever seen, with funny little red walls and roof of mossy green.” Do you remember Wendy singing this verse in The Story of Peter Pan? “Peter Pan housing” is often referred to as homes designed for people who are never going to grow up and never going to grow old. How different is that from the military’s ideal subject of the six-foot, 190-pound, healthy, strong, 20-year-old male, which has been used for decades as a basis for the design of products and environments we live with today?

Universal Design (UD) is the primary framework that consciously designs to accommodate peoples’ diverse differences. It focuses on how people actually use a space and how best to utilize its features to deliver people-oriented benefits. For example, work surfaces at varying heights that can accommodate little Johnny assisting his 5’10” mother in baking cookies. You get the picture.

The foremost market benefit of UD is lifestyle enhancement through family interactions (i.e. to be culturally sustainable, then secondarily to fulfill a physical need). Architectural design features influence the quality of our lives and can either support or hinder our ability to live in our homes, comfortably, conveniently and independently.

I had the opportunity to teach an interior design class project assignment required in the Seattle Pacific University course, Universal Design in Housing. The students were asked to redesign a “traditional” floor plan previously developed by a local builder. The primary goal was to redesign the spaces in the home using UD principles, in addition to other specific design goals. The students presented the revised plan to the builder for approval. The new plan was constructed and sold to a family with small children who greatly appreciated the open floor plan.

In my opinion, UD principles and products should be applied to all new construction to create a paradigm shift in the current housing stock. For example, how will we provide the millions of aging Baby Boomers seeking to downsize with homes designed to support differing stages, ages and circumstances?

Fortunately, many resources exist that can assist professionals and consumers with incorporating UD features in remodeled or new homes. Of particular interest is The Center for Universal Design’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Universal Design Features in Houses list.

One example of UD is “vertical circulation” – a recommendation for a two-story dwelling that provides at least one set of stacked closets, pantries or storage spaces with a knock-out floor. This “invisible UD feature” can later become a shaft for an elevator/vertical platform installation – at a great cost savings. With today’s lot size restrictions, we are faced with multi-story homes that can be designed initially with this feature to enhance the quality of life and ease of mind for the future homeowners.

Beyond new housing, the inclusion of UD in home remodeling projects is vital. Professionals hired to provide services to a homeowner (e.g., an architect, designer or contractor) should have the knowledge to inform the homeowner of available options that will enhance the final project. Approaches to UD should become proactive instead of reactive, and ultimately, support long term livability. This may include a simple suggestion of widening all applicable doorways to be three feet (3’0) not only to ease moving furniture, but also to later accommodate a person using a wheelchair or walker.

While UD is applicable in general home remodeling projects, “home modifications” address the specific needs of residents who may require special, custom adaptations. The installation of a grab bar that supports a user with a balance issue is a “home modification,” whereas reinforcement or blocking in the bathroom wall is considered a UD feature that later has the potential to support multiple user needs.

The application of the nuances to create seamless and supportive solutions takes some time to learn and may prove to be challenging. Professionals may seek to expand their knowledge base through professional education programs, such as the online Executive Certificate in Home Modification Program offered through the National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification at the University of Southern California.

To create a paradigm shift in supportive housing, we need more than Tinker Bell, Peter Pan and the traditional model that has been used for decades. We need to collectively work together to ensure housing provides a quality of life we have come to expect.

Is Universal Design the Next Big Thing?

Universal design may well be the next major movement to sweep the homebuilding industry after green building – at least if expert predictions during a full day of programming at the International Builders’ Show in Orlando prove accurate. Although it’s hard not to mention the term “universal design” without referencing baby boomers (the graying of this generation of 78 million is certainly creating a sense of urgency on matters of home safety and accessibility), UD proponents are quick to note that it isn’t just for older homeowners.

After all, it’s universal.

“The new universal design is pretty, easy to use, and has high-tech functionality that is nearly invisible,” Brookfield, Conn.-based kitchen designer Mary Jo Peterson pointed out during a press conference on the topic. “Right now this is a concept that is age driven, but truly the target should be everybody.”

While the tenets of universal design are ever evolving, the term is generally understood to encapsulate “enabling rather than disabling” home design features, such as wider doors and hallways, non-skid flooring, no-threshold entries and showers, raised electrical outlets, ergonomic faucets and cabinet hardware, multi-height countertops and workstations, pull-out cabinet shelves, and the list goes on. The basic philosophy is that a home should be navigable and accommodating to people of all different shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities.

Matt Thornhill, founder of The Boomer Project, a market research initiative based in Richmond, Va., focusing on the 50+ market, noted that there are many universal design lessons to be gleaned from recent consumer product makeovers. When Heinz redesigned its ketchup bottle as a plastic squeeze bottle a couple years back, consumers were liberated from the ritual of turning the traditional glass vessel upside down and banging the bottom – or, alternately, sticking a knife into the neck, only to cause half of its contents to come pouring out. Although a nostalgic few glass bottle lovers protested the change, legions more lauded the packaging modification as an ergonomic masterstroke – one that is just as user-friendly to messy kids as it is to older individuals with arthritic hands.

The challenge for today’s builders, architects, designers, and product manufacturers, Thornhill said, is to find ways to make homes just as functional, intuitive, and user-friendly as that ketchup bottle.

Universal design advocates, meanwhile, are facing a different sort of uphill battle: debunking the misconception that anything universally designed must inevitably look institutional or hospital-like. Major manufacturers such as Masco Corp., Kohler, and others have already begun breaking down such misconceptions by example. Today’s universal design is the sleek, lever-handle faucet that’s easier to maneuver than a knob. It’s the in-drawer dishwasher or raised platform washing machine that can be loaded from either a standing or seated position. Or the art-glass task lighting that makes a style statement while simultaneously making it easier to read a recipe, thread a needle, or peel a head of garlic. The part you notice is the aesthetic. The part you appreciate is the functionality.

Experts provided countless other examples of universal design’s universal benefits in a string of educational seminars and product tours at the show. Presenters were quick to point out, for example, that a threshold-free front entry may be wheelchair accessible, but it also allows parents to roll a stroller inside without waking a sleeping baby. Pull-out base cabinets in the kitchen are a godsend not just for older people, but also for anyone who is not tall – including the 28-year-old woman who is 5-feet tall, lives alone, and can’t reach conventional upper cabinets without a ladder. And then there are reinforced grab bars in the bathroom (now available in high-style designs that look like fancy towel racks), which, unlike standard towel racks, will not rip out of the wall if small kids attempt to hang from them.

The great news is that universal design doesn’t have to cost a whole lot more than conventional design from a construction standpoint. “You can easily do a 2-foot-8-inch-wide doorway instead of a 2-foot-six-inch with virtually no price difference,” Binghamton, N.Y.-based builder and remodeler Mike McGowan said in a press conference. And besides, a wider door feels luxurious in the same way that a taller ceiling height does. If anything, it’s more of a design plus than a minus.

One litmus test that McGowan uses to ensure the user-friendliness of his homes is whether a person can navigate and use every feature in the house while wearing mittens. That simple exercise informs specification choices in appliances, door hardware, lighting, and more. “It just requires some retraining and rethinking with our trades,” says McGowan, the immediate past chair of the NAHB’s 50+ Housing Council. “I’ve found it’s easier to train my guys one way, so everything we do is universal design.”

Would your latest new home pass the mitten test? It may not be a pressing issue now, but it could be in 20 years, when one in five U.S. residents will be 65 or older. Even builders who don’t design specifically for seniors will be designing and building homes for families who want their parents and grandparents to come visit and help out with Thanksgiving dinner.

“If we do it right,” Peterson said, “it will just be beautiful and work well and won’t be identifiable.” But promoting a design cause whose ultimate goal is invisibility, transparency, and universality could be a challenge in and of itself.

Peter Pan Housing vs. Universally Designed Housing

Is Universal Design the Next Big Thing?