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Universal Design: A Winner-Takes-All 'Experience'

Do we shape our houses, or do they shape us? The words of Winston Churchill echo the dilemma we face when designing and building homes for the lucrative baby boomer and over 50 market. How we respond will determine whether the homes we build attract home buyers or send them to our competition.

Most of us are familiar with the term, “Information Age," but for the boomer and beyond market this will be the "Experience Age." Noted Swiss architect and city planner Le Corbusier once said that the home should be “the treasure chest of living.” The “experience” we deliver in our homes will be the treasure this population group covets. The following are elements to provide in your homes that will heighten your home owners’ experience:

• Provide Comfort.

Do your homes include elements requiring reduced physical effort that swing, slide, maximize ease of use and minimize hazards? Do they enhance your potential buyers’ changing abilities and foster long-term independence?

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Features such as pull-away faucets and sitting areas in the laundry, vanity areas and in the kitchen, where people can sit while cooking or preparing foods, are examples of how comfort can enhance the home “experience.” Special lighting such as multi-task, automatic sensor and natural day lighting are important, too, because they can reduce physical and mental strain while enhancing safety and security. Peace of mind is a coveted experience that, once achieved, becomes a priceless comfort.

• Provide Control.

Can everyone enter and move through major living areas of your homes without having to manage stairs or surface elevation changes? Provide the “experience” with step-free entries, a multi-generational kitchen and an owners’ suite on the main floor with a spa-like spacious bathroom large enough and maneuverable enough to accommodate a caregiver, if needed.

Open space with clear vision lines will also bring ample maneuverability not only for buyers who may require walkers or wheelchairs over time, but also for visiting family members with baby carriages.

Provide Convenience.

Do your homes offer improved ergonomic access through reduced stepping, bending, climbing, reaching, lifting and carrying? Are you providing cabinetry and appliances that can be easily reached by all users, whatever their height? Is each leg of your kitchen triangle useable by grandparents, parents and kids — and less than nine feet long so it eliminates extra steps?

Can appliances and fixtures be used by all based on their placement or type? Pop-open windows with crank handles keep things within reach. Raised washers, dryers and dishwashers eliminate some bending. Provide moving drawers, shelves and carts for convenience, too.

Provide Creativity.

Since baby boomers will have more leisure time and want to reinvent themselves, include spaces for this challenge. A well designed home promotes multiple uses and flex space can be shared by various family members as well as guests. For instance, consider a family studio with open knee space beneath or within cabinetry for seated activities, lowered sinks and work surfaces, and built in components so customers can manage a home business or do crafts.

Raise the bar for what your home owners will come to expect. Creativity is implementing standard items in new ways — adjustable closet rods, pop-up electrical outlets on counter surfaces and recessed storage.

• Provide Choice.

Home buyers have hundreds of options from which to choose — and these options will become increasingly popular if they allow the buyers to live out their evolving life “experiences.” Through greater connectivity with family, friends and even re-discovering themselves, home buyers will devote leisure time to enhancing their lifestyles with these features. They will make their lives easier, healthier and more flexible and entertaining while they “grow” into retirement. Expand your options list often and they will marvel at the selection and want what their neighbors have — or more.

Help your home buyers live life to the fullest, without the hassle of maintenance, adaptation and bother. They want homes for a lifetime. And, since they are so choosy, they may even want two or three homes to suit their expanding lives. Choice has no boundaries.

Identify Their Needs So They Can Age in Place

If you are ready to sell to this targeted market, plan to identify their needs and build homes that will allow them to “age in place.” By providing a home environment, both inside and outside, with features and elements to be used to the maximum extent possible, regardless of age, size, strength and ability, you can provide a total “experience,” a universal design experience.

• Your design can be seamless, invisible, practical and beautiful.
• Your homes will have appeal that is useful and marketable to all.
• The innovations you create will meet and exceed your home buyers' expectations
• Act now, rather than later, and you will probably be ahead of your competition. You’ll also be solidifying your brand as a builder who delivers what customers want.
• Package your options. It is more profitable and it will differentiate you from your competition.
• By shaping homes for your customers’ future, you will have created a win-win business arrangement. Your customers will be happy, and you will have created a foundation for referrals for years to come as well as a personal sense of pride and accomplishment.

Universal Design Now, Or Higher Home Owner Costs Later

Universal design amounts to barely 2% of new construction costs, versus 25%-27% for retrofitting an existing home. The cost savings are stacked in your favor if you can offer a home that will meet ever-changing needs and provide the “experience” this graying population will demand.

If you haven’t begun to sell to this market, or even considered it, you might want to reconsider because the demographics speak for themselves. Never before has focusing on simple, logical design brought so much unlimited opportunity to the table.

Universal design is good design. Incorporating these features, perhaps before home buyers even recognize what their needs may be, puts you in a unique, credible position, and your homes will be in the best shape for selling.

In this Information Age, the right knowledge and its implementation are the answers to capturing this growing market. Learn all you can about this market, what is meaningful to them and how universal design is the unfound treasure for which they are searching. And, you will be creating milestones for our future.

Rebecca Stahr, ASID, CAPS, is president of LifeSpring Environs, Inc. of Atlanta, and consults with housing industry innovators to promote their growth in the 50+ market. She is a Registered Interior Designer and Certified Aging in Place Specialist delivering aging-in-place environments for both commercial and residential projects nationally. Stahr is a board member of the EasyLiving Home Coalition, Georgia's first voluntary visitable builder certification program, and is active in NAHB's Seniors Housing Council and Remodelors™ Council. For more information, e-mail Stahr at lifespring.env@mindspring.com or call her at 678-762-3330. 

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