Creating a Lifetime Home

ABOVE: Including provision for a discrete sleeping wing at ground floor level – ideally with outdoor access – means the house can adapt to any occupants who develop mobility problems. (Read more about this self-build).

If you are planning to build your own home, you’ll need to give your designer a clear brief to work to, but do you base that brief on your needs and aspirations as they are today; or as you imagine they might be at some point in the future?

If you follow the principles of ‘lifetime home’ design, the answer could be both, because you will be creating a home with accommodation that is flexible enough to adapt to the changing needs of each stage in life: from being a couple, to having a family, becoming empty nesters and then old age.

If you have finally found your dream plot, lifetime home design could mean you never have to move again. “It would be a real shame to build your dream house and then find after a few years that because of illness, disability or simply ageing, it cannot be used anymore and you have to move,” says architect Richard Hutchinson of Kosi Architects, winner of the House of the Future competition in the British Homes Awards 2009.

“The Government is keen to see all new homes built with a greater degree of flexibility and accessibility, and by 2013 the Lifetime Homes Standard, part of the Code for Sustainable Homes, will become a statutory requirement.

“The standard sets out some good basic measures for extending the idea of accessible, universal home design, and you can choose to build to these standards now, but there are other simple measures that, if planned for at the design stage, can mean that your house is future-proofed and can adapt to your changing needs, so you can remain in your home for your entire life.”

What is a lifetime home?

Lifetime home design is not just about anticipating and meeting our own needs as individuals from youth to having a family, through to old age. It is also about anticipating the changing shape and size of the household itself, and all of the other functions and demands placed upon the home — from workplace or home office, to possible subdivision to allow part of the building to be let out independently as an additional income stream, and at some stage possibly accommodation for a live-in carer.

Children are remaining in education much longer and leaving home later. Life expectancy is increasing and there is a growing imperative to provide care for the elderly at home. Consequently, there are now over half a million households in the UK in which there are more than two generations of the same family living together – known as a multi-generational household – and this number is set to grow dramatically in the decades to come.

When it works, living together as a multigenerational family unit can bring social and economic benefits, allowing families to pool capital to buy a more spacious property. Grandparents are also increasingly acting as carers for their grand c hildren and, in turn, children for their elderly parents. For all this to work success fully, though, the home needs to be designed around all of these needs, and provide indepen dence, privacy and dignity to its occupants.

Case study: One house, two homes

Three generations of the Brook family share this oak frame home, built on a piece of land that they inherited from a fourth generation. The natural conclusion was to ensure the new house met everyone’s needs now and in the future.

Architect Jonathan Loy, from Virginia, USA designed the house in two parts, to allow independent living. The main family house features an open plan kitchen/dining room, a sitting room with galleried landing above and a laundry room, with three first floor bedrooms and a ground floor bedroom with en suite bathroom to provide flexible accommodation.

The annexe has its own separate entrance, and includes two bedrooms, a vaulted gallery and stairs and, downstairs, a bathroom plus an open plan living/dining/kitchen. Natural materials ensure the exterior remains low-maintenance.

Completed in 2008, the 297m² project took 18 months to complete and cost £397,000. (Read more about this self-build).

Designers' views

"Flexibility is key"

Jonathan Dawes, Flowspace Architecture (flowspace.com)

The architect behind the ‘Life Changing Home’ concept, Jonathan offers his checklist of design ideas for flexible living:

• Incorporate a range of different scales of rooms

• Flexibility is key. Consider a number of relevant scenarios that allow capacity for change to your home with minimal disruption. This may come in many forms: reorienting circulation, redefining roles, joining/separating rooms or refitting

• Consider lightweight partitions in key areas that can be taken out at a later date. Also bear in mind the position of windows and openings where rooms might later be divided

• If size, orientation and aspect allow it, plan for a second entrance. Whether for a home office or annexe, this not only affords a level of independence and privacy but can also minimise disturbance to the core activities of the home

• The plumbing and electrics also need to be accommodated in any futureproofing of your plans. So think carefully and flexibly about positions of downpipes, radiators, lights and sockets

• Remember that, above all, the lifetime home must be able to comfortably adapt to different generations of users and uses

"Create multi-functional rooms"

Nik Hilton, Design 4D (design4d.co.uk)

When considering designing your own home, I would suggest forgetting traditional room typologies and think more about what you want to do within a space. This frees up your thinking and opens up opportunities for rooms with multi-functionality.

Our Shell House scheme, a British Homes Awards Finalist 2009, considered the home over its whole lifetime and how a simple layout could accommodate the needs of different age groups over time. This included the ability for the house to easily have up to four bedrooms or be divided into two separate flats. We allowed zones for a future lift and additional bathrooms which could be simply plugged into the existing services. We also positioned the majority of the accommodation on the ground floor and extended the garden up onto the roof.

For true flexibility and sustainability, it is important you consider how the building is to be constructed, maintained and eventually demolished. Modern methods of construction can simplify the way we build and this will save you time and money which can be spent on other areas of the house.

Nik Hilton BSc (Hons) BArch ARB is a partner at London-based Design4D (020 7771 8161) which developed a concept for the ‘lifetime home’ and was nominated for Young Architect of the Year 2009.

Lifetime homes standard

This is a new standard – currently optional – to which homes can be designed. There are 16 design criteria with which a dwelling must comply, based around the idea of good accessibility. Some are already included within Part M of the Building Regulations and so are statutory. For full details see lifetimehomes.org.uk.

1. Car-parking width: a 3,300mm space, or 2,400mm with space to enlarge
2. Access from car parking: minimal distance to entrance, min. 900mm width
3. Approach gradients: the approach to entrances must be level or gently sloping
4. Entrances: should be illuminated; thresholds should be level
5. Communal stairs & lifts: steps should have a uniform rise of no more than 170mm and going of no less than 250mm
6. Doorways & hallways: minimum width for doorways is 750mm to 900mm when approach is not head on; corridors from 900mm to 1,050mm when no head on
7. Wheelchair accessibility: there should be adequate turning and circulation space
8. The living room: should be at entrance level to allow access for all
9. Entrance level bed space: a space at entrance level that could be a bedroom
10. Entrance level WC & shower drainage: plus drainage provision
11. Bathroom & WC walls: capable of taking adaptations, i.e. handrails
12. Stairlift/through-floor lift: provision of a stairlift or a suitably identified space
13. Tracking hoist route: potential route for a hoist from a bedroom to bathroom
14. Bathroom layout: designed to incorporate ease of access

15. Window specification: living room glazing should begin at 800mm or lower
16. Switches, sockets, ventilation & service controls: should be set at a height usable by all (i.e. between 450mm and 1,200mm from the floor)

This article was written in conjunction with Richard Hutchinson, Warren Rosing and Agata Perepeczo, Directors of Kosi Architects, based in London and Chichester. Kosi won the British Homes Awards’ House of the Future competition in 2009 with Valentina Del Fuoco of Afterhourstudio, and is particularly interested in designing customised homes that can adapt to future requirements. Kosi Architects: 020 7622 2534 kosi-architects.co.uk.

Read about design solutions for a life time home...

See an example of how a home can be designed to evolve with its users...

Further reading:

• Self-building for Your Special Needs
• Building Regulations
• Organic Architecture