Livable bathroom design among keys to healthy Australian homes

Read article : Livable bathroom design among keys to healthy Australian homes

When considering what to study at university, health, at present, rates far higher than architecture. But products encouraging health-related living, and design allowing our predicted long lives to be as fruitful and mobile as possible, are likely growth areas.

Design guidelines from Livable Housing Australia (LHA) were introduced in September 2012. LHA sponsors include large property development firms and building and construction associations and accessibility is on the list of what to watch out for – alongside cost, aesthetics, materials and other usual suspects.

After all, we will be generating the demand. From 2004 to 2051, the proportion of Australians over 65 years will double, while in the same period the percentage of those 85 years plus will quadruple, says Associate Professor Dr Catherine Bridge, Director of the University of New South Wales’ Home Modification Information Clearinghouse Service Program and Director of the Enabling Built Environment Research Program at the university’s CityFutures Research Centre.

The figures are not new but they hold sway alongside increases with age in chronic health conditions and activities needing assistance and the consequent rise in costs of managing care for government and individuals. With a growing number of older people living alone and aged care reform focusing on home and community care (as Australians have indicated they want as they age) independent living is the target.

Diagram of floorplan of the Livable Housing Design's Silver' level. Images: Integrated Design Group

 

Yet the environment of one of our most important rooms, the bathroom, may not support the functional performance of older people, Bridge says. Assistive technologies that could help bathing also are under-developed and underutilised among older people living at home, she says. “A lack of knowledge about bathing environments, uncertainty about the design preferences of older people, lack of basic human factors data, design guides and standards without an adequate validation process, and reports of design practice not based on empirical evidence are hallmarks of current bathroom design.”

UNSW’s research into “Livable bathrooms for older people - designing out dependence in activities of daily living” aims to address these deficiencies. Of the seven LHA guidelines that have to be met for homes to receive the silver rating, which LHA chair, Peter Verwer, aims to have the market adopt by 2020, three relate to bathrooms: a hobless stair free shower recess, ground (entry) level toilet and reinforced walls around toilet, shower, and/or bath to support safe installation of support rails in future.

The livable bathroom research has received $446,000 in Australian Research Council (ARC) funding spread over three years, 2012-14, Bridge says. The ARC thought it was worth funding research that will investigate the underemployment of existing assistive technologies “due to financial constraints, lack of knowledge, denial of needs and concern over stigma,” Bridge says.

“Numerous bathroom sanitaryware designs come on to the market everyday in the form of new styles, shapes, colours, and technological innovations, but little is known about their impact on livability for older people.”

Roca promotion of an anti-ageing treatment aims to change the image of the bathroom by, for instance, getting a new bathroom unit or shower or mirror. It has the slogan, “If your bathroom looks better, you feel better”.

The bathroom is commonly considered to be the most difficult domestic space to adapt, and thus barriers to bathroom-based modifications generally have to be overcome. Research topics for UNSW identified as requiring testing include: the position of the toilet and bathtub for easy approach and transfer and the height of the toilet etc. The work, in collaboration with sanitaryware supplier, GWA (and commissioned by Caroma Industries), will incorporate human factors with a co-design group of UNSW researchers and elderly people. 

 

Deborah Singerman is a Sydney-based journalist and editor, specialising in architecture and design, including city, community, society, economy, sustainability and culture.