Sid Evans, editor in chief of Southern Dwelling journal, isn’t any stranger to idea homes. Getting a pitch for one from a reader, then again, was a brand new expertise. “I obtained an e-mail from Scott Rider, who has Parkinson’s illness, a couple of challenge he’d already began: constructing a cottage designed particularly for individuals like him, who had been dwelling with mobility points,” says Evans, who oversees the journal’s annual Southern Dwelling Thought Home, a ground-up development showhouse that’s in-built a brand new location every year.
“It made a lot sense to companion with Scott and his crew on the challenge for a lot of causes—[adaptive design] is only a smarter approach to construct a home,” says Evans. “Whether or not or not it really works properly for you, so many individuals may have associates or relations who’ve mobility challenges. In the event you’re going to be host, notably from the Southern viewpoint, the place we’re all about hospitality, you need anybody to really feel welcome there, and also you need individuals to have the ability to entry the home and get round. It’s simply a good suggestion to attempt to make properties extra inviting and extra accommodating, and to indicate these concepts to our readers.”
Creating areas with clean, even transitions from one room to the subsequent was a part of making the house accessible.Laurey W. Glenn
By the point the journal got here on board, Rider had already tapped professionals in his group in Habersham, South Carolina, who had been keen to donate time and sources—a crew that included architects Eric Moser and Lauren Kelly of Moser Design Group; designer Kathryn Lott; developer Habersham Land Firm; and builder Allen Patterson. The ensuing challenge makes its debut within the journal’s August challenge. The property was bought earlier this 12 months, with web proceeds supporting the Parkinson’s Basis; the home plan is now additionally accessible to buy, and a share of these gross sales will go to the Parkinson’s Basis as properly.
Specifying cupboard handles as a substitute of knobs had been a easy alternative that made cupboards all through the house simpler to open.Laurey W. Glenn
Pull-out drawers within the closet had been key to creating storage straightforward to entry. Laurey W. Glenn
Left: Specifying cupboard handles as a substitute of knobs had been a easy alternative that made cupboards all through the house simpler to open. Laurey W. Glenn | Proper: Pull-out drawers within the closet had been key to creating storage straightforward to entry. Laurey W. Glenn
From the surface, the home appears like some other Lowcountry cottage. Inside, it options considerate particulars like extra-wide entryways, pocket doorways, counter-height retailers and even a pot filler set halfway up the wall supposed for filling pet bowls. The home plan additionally consists of the choice for an elegantly-designed ramp on the house’s exterior. “Because the challenge was growing, I’d stroll via the area with Scott, and he confirmed me how even the little issues make a distinction,” says Lott. “He would say, ‘That you must contemplate hooks at a decrease degree for people who find themselves in wheelchairs,’ or, ‘We have to contemplate cupboard handles which might be pulls,’ which was attention-grabbing and eye-opening.”
The subject of growing older in place, regardless of the logic of it, remains to be not a well-liked one within the design group, conjuring photographs of chrome steel seize bars and different clunky particulars in ADA-accessible public areas. “Once you discuss accessibility within the dwelling, individuals’s minds do go to what they’ve seen in lodge loos,” says Moser. “You wouldn’t be capable of inform that that is an adaptable dwelling, and, actually, the individuals who purchased it don’t have any mobility points in any respect—they only liked the home.”
In the lounge, Lott created seating choices at a number of heights.Laurey W. Glenn
Lott hopes that exposing Southern Dwelling’s viewers—which spans 13 million individuals—to the house will assist illuminate the straightforward ways in which designers can prolong the longevity, usability and inclusivity of a house. “I’m 35, and my dad and mom are of their 60s, and I do know finally I’ll be caring for them,” she says. “To know that my dwelling completely might meet these wants with just a few minor adjustments, that’s wonderful.”
To be taught extra in regards to the Southern Dwelling Adaptive Cottage, go to the journal’s web site or decide up a replica of the August challenge, on stands now.
Homepage picture: The outside of Southern Dwelling’s Adaptive Cottage | Picture by Laurey W. Glenn
