Design for Elderly

Designing a good home for elderly persons is not the easiest task in the book. The
reason for this is that you never know how an old person is going to age, allthough,
you can assume some things by making some generalizations, and that may or may not be
the best way to do it. In this post I’m going to assume a few things and try to
design a flat for the “typical old person”.

So, what happens when you are considered elderly and becomes even older? – A lot of
things, you lose flexibility, your eyesight gets worse, hearing is not what it was,
your bones becomes brittle, your memory fails you, you are weaker than you were and
the coordination might not be what it was. This is the general case and there are, of
course, a few exceptions, some persons might age better and some might develop
diseases far more disabling than the “normal” aging process.

Seniors seldom want to admit that they are growing old and want to live in their home
as long as possible, so the first step of converting their current flat to a more
senior-friendly flat. They seldom want to admit that they are growing old and might
need some aid in the every day so any radical change is not likely to be accepted.

Removing tresholds that are high and replacing them with a minimal treshold that
tripping on is unlikely is something that should be done. This will help later as
well if the senior will be using any walking aid. Another step that probably should
be taken somewhat early is removing the need to store stuff on high shelves or other
hard-to-reach places. Because if an old person fall from lets say a stool, or trips
on something it often result in a pretty serious injury. Falling injuries are one of
the most common injuries for Elderly people. So a lot of designing a suitable home
for the elderly is to avoid the falling injuries. Having some handlebars or similar
in the bathroom is a very good thing! Maybe a shower-stool as well! The idea with
handlebars or wall-fastenend things you can use as help is great.

Keeping the flat open and clean of small stuff is another thing that should be kept
in mind. Things in the way is potential dangers and will make it more different to
move indoors with a moving aid. Another thing that an open apartment will do is to
enable a fun little tool, the self moving vacuum cleaner!

Talking about aiding tools, there are a few that makes everyday life easier, these
are not only good for elderly people, but for all people! And to keep everyone in
mind is probably a good thing when designing EVERYTHING. All tough, tuning for
elderly people is kind of tuning for a lot of different disabilities. Also, the
designer should read the guidelines stated for designing houses, there are a great
set of guidelines that if followed, enables almost everyone.

So to sum things up, keep the design nice and tidy, avoid small and tricky things
(even locks might be swapped to electric), put extra aid close to problem areas. Keep
objects in good height(regarding both high places and low). Use technology in the
correct way(should be easy to use and USEFULL, meaning for example smart lights and not things like high-end computers used to find the next prime number).