Aging in Place: Accessible Friendly Residential Architecture is about how this architectural firm is designing every project of theirs in an “Accessible Friendly” manner, to further allow their Clients to enjoy living there for as long as possible in their lives.
Click on the image below to see the presentation:
Recently, the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) Washington, D.C. office phoned the Home Architects to ask them to make a presentation at the NAHB national conference. Home Architects agreed. The presentation was made in September, 2016 at the NAHB Summit national conference in Asheville, NC at the Renaissance Hotel. Many Contractors attended and asked good questions after the presentation about how to better prepare SFR (Single Family Residences) for aging home owners. Rand Soellner, ArCH, NCARB, Senior Staff Architect for the firm made the presentation (Aging in Place: Accessible Friendly Residential Architecture), aided by his wife, Merry Soellner, Licensed Real Estate Broker (who is tasked with buying and selling homes for her Clients, many of whom are 60 to 80 years of age).
This architectural firm practices what it preaches. For decades, it has been detailing its projects to help its Clients to be able live in their houses for longer, including up until the end of their lives. To accomplish this, the Architect has been eliminating obstacles from what exists in most residences from their designs. In some instances, this has saved money rather than cost more, as some people might imagine.
For instance, in the presentation, the company describes how it eliminates steps from the garage into the house. Code doesn’t require them and there’s no logical reason for them to exist, as they have historically. This removes a major hurdle to someone in a wheelchair or with crutches or a walker, to entering their house. The company has spent decades refining the details of how to accomplish features like this in a fine architectural design for a house.