What if they have dementia or a stroke? How to adapt homes for couples so they can age in place
- Why leave the home you are familiar with just because you are getting old? Designers can adapt it by rounding edges, adding grab rails and anti-slip floors
- Furniture height can be adjusted, doors widened for wheelchair users, and rooms altered to maximise light. Smart-home devices will increasingly be an option
Having lived in their three-bedroom, two-bathroom flat for more than two decades, a retired Hong Kong couple in their seventies never wanted to leave. But they realised the design of their home in Quarry Bay had to change to reflect their twilight years.
What might have been practical when they were in their fifties was now potentially perilous, and they wanted a better use of space.
“They’re both fit and healthy now, but they’re looking ahead to at least the next 10 years,” says designer Patrick Lam Kwai-pui, founder of Sim-Plex Design Studio in Sheung Wan, whose modifications should enable the couple to remain in their forever home. With people living longer than ever, this couple’s desire to live well and independently is indicative of an “active ageing” trend.
“If you have a reasonably comfortable home, adequate support and a fulfilling social life, that is the optimal environment,” says Vivien Mak, lead architect on the publication Elderly-Friendly Design Guidelines, commissioned by the Hong Kong government’s Architectural Services Department in 2019 and publicly available on its website.
The first issue Lam tackled for his clients was the bathroom, widely regarded as the most dangerous place in the home, especially for those aged over 65.
The bathtub in the en suite was replaced by a shower with grab rails on a tempered glass screen. The toilet was repositioned to allow more space around it, and the flooring replaced with anti-slip tiles.