Last week, I got to participate in one of my favorite assignments of the year. I worked along with master’s level interior design students at the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University in Boston. The name of the course? “Human Factors & Universal Design.”
What Interior Designers Need To Learn About Aging
This years’ assignment, an apartment in a high-rise Elderly/Disabled Public Housing development of 199 units built in the 1970s for tenants aged 58 upward who live independently. My participation was to demonstrate how age related vision, sensory and health changes may cause barriers to safety and mobility within the home and how incorporating “human factors” into their redesign of the space would help overcome these obstacles. Working alongside each of the 18 students individually showed how they perceived UD in the context of aging and disability that did not include that “human” factor. As the students were younger I asked them to visualize older family members such as grandparents in their homes. Again, as in the past, it was as if I saw a light bulb switching on as they envisioned and we discussed obstacles they had not thought about until then.
Helping People Understand Aging Factors
As we identified areas of concern in the design mockup they grew more aware of issues such as vision, not considered until then. I showed that grab bars should be in a contrasting color to the wall behind them because we generally undergo vision changes from our forties as a normal part of aging. On top of that, we generally do not wear glasses in the shower so we need color contrast to make the outline of the grab bar pop out. There’s great satisfaction in influencing designers of the future. Doing so through universal design concepts taking the human factor into account is particularly rewarding. I look forward to seeing the completed designs within weeks and helping the next generation of interior designers help everyone age in place. Are you an interior designer looking for someone to help you understand how to accommodate those who are aging? Are you a homeowner who needs someone to help them make the right decisions about their future? Contact me today!
