Life Time Homes

Buying a house is one of the most important purchase in our life. The reason is not that it might be the most expensive thing we have bought but because it will be home for us, for our children and maybe grandchildren. That is why nowadays many houses are designed to be flexible and accessible such that the house could adapt to the life changes.

To meet a lifetime home standards you have to follow the main 16 criteria:

1. Parking (width or widening capability)
2. Approach from parking to dwelling (distance, widths, gradients)
3. Approach to all entrances
4. Entrances
5. Communal stairs and lifts
6. Internal doorways and hallways
7. Circulation space
8. Entrance level living space
9. Potential for entrance level bed-space
10. Entrance level WC and shower drainage
11. WC and bathroom walls
12. Stairs and potential through-floor lift in dwellings
13. Potential for fitting the hoist and bedroom/bathroom relationship
14. Bathroom
15. Glazing and window handle heights
16. Location and service control

There is some photos of Lozzells (Birmingham,UK) residential development where few of the 16 requirements had been already applied for the construction.

Knock out panel on the floor for future provision for a lift

The entrance level WC with the potential for a shower to be installed and grab rails to be fixed.

It was calculated that the cost of building to the Lifetime Homes standards range from £574 to £1615 per house.

Most of the 16 Lifetime Home criteria are related with Building Regulation Approved Document Part M. However not all of them match with AD Part M standards. An additional design features should be added to satisfy some of the criteria.

References:
'Lifetime Homes' [Online] Availabe at: http://www.lifetimehomes.org.uk/ [Accessed at 18th of October, 2013]
Images:
Personal archive

House design metrics and standards

House/room space is one of the main factors that makes homes comfortable for those who live in it. Everyone needs a space to store their possessions, to cook and eat, private space to study, work and rest, etc. The lack of space could have an impact on family relationships, well-being and health. However, the new built houses in the UK are much smaller than the standard houses few decades ago. Also, to compare UK new house space with European houses, the results would be shocking. England’s new homes are the smallest in Western Europe (more details can be found here)

At the moment there is no specific standard for home space in the UK. As in 1980s the government gave all the rights to the market on deciding about the house size. Nevertheless, some architects/builders build the houses according to Parker Morris space standards which been published in the report ‘Homes for Today and Tomorrow’ (1961). ‘It should be stressed that Parker Morris did not lay down minimum areas for rooms. The report simply stated that the dwelling had to be furnishable with a specified amount of furniture’ (Chown, 1969) and had a storage space. In other words, in all bedrooms there should be space for bed, table and wardrobe.  Moreover, it should not just simply fit in there but have a space to easily open the wardrobe or get in/out of the bed as well.  

Recently new space requirements were published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) which mostly applied for homes in London. The population growth in London is getting higher every year as well as the new homes development. However, people need not only quick built houses, but homes which ‘are comfortable and functional’(Roberts-Hughes, 2011). So that is why GLA set a minimum standard for gross internal floor area according to number of bedrooms and people. 

Case study

I found this house plan on the online seller ‘selfbuildplans' website.

It is 2 storey, 3 bedroom quite attractive house. The buyer is able to choose between few different elevation styles. But the number which shows the floor size is not as impressive as the pictures. Total floor size is 82sqm (887sqf).

According to the GLA requirements 2 storey, 3 bedroom, 4 people house should not be smaller than 87sqm. However, the floor plans show that there is 2 double and one single bed, which means that the maximum number of the house occupiers could be 5 people. In that case the minimum floor size should be 96sqm according to the table above.

Also, it is easy to see from the floor plans that none of the bedrooms have space for study (desk and chair), bedroom 2 & 3 even do not have a bed table, there is no toilet on the ground floor, there is no storage, there is no possibility to fit a bigger breakfast table in the kitchen in case the house would be occupied by 5 people, lounge is design for 4 people as well. 

Taking everything into consideration, maybe it is cheaper and faster to build a smaller house, however, overcrowded homes with no personal and comfortable space to relax or study could have a huge impact on our health and education.

References:

* Chown, I., 1969. 'Metric handbook. Planning and design data.' edited by David Adler, 2nd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press.

* Roberts-Hughes, R., 2011. ''The Case for Space: the size of England’s new home', RIBA.

Solar Energy UK, 2013

Few weeks ago I started my second year in Architectural Technology course in Birmingham City University and the first project was about sustainable houses. After I heard the assignment brief I knew that one of my key point will be solar energy.  Such uncharacteristically sunny summer left a great impression, I think, not only for me but for most people who had a thought to go a bit ‘green’ and use renewable solar energy in their house as well. Sadly the Solar Energy exhibition was after my project deadline. However, I still couldn’t miss the opportunity to gain more knowledge about renewable energy as I am sure it will be closely related with my future career.

The exhibition took place in the Birmingham NEC arena on 10th of October, where I and my colleague were greeted by welcoming staff. To admit my knowledge about solar panels was not very impressive. Nevertheless, after few hours we had spent there and all the leaflets I read (and took home) I could say that now solar panels are a little bit more familiar to me.

Solar Panel

I found out that there are so many different types and styles of solar panels and to pick the right one is not as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of criteria such us, location, roof type, direction the roof is facing, use of energy: solar water heating or solar electricity etc. Also, there were talking about solar farms, its profits for the owners and how to fix, secure and clean the solar panels.

Inventor

Even though the solar panels are not such an old invention but its technology is improving so fast that it is a bit hard to keep up with it. Today was the first time I have heard about Solar Thermal Tube Panel (more info here), about the appliances for monitoring and managing PV work (some had such an elegant and great design that I felt necessity to get one, unfortunately, first I need to get PV) etc. SMA company attract my attention with Sunny View the device to track the plant data which shows not only how much energy it made, money you saved, weather forecast but also number of trees which would be necessary to avoid the same amount of CO2, it converts the amount of greenhouse gasses avoided into a car trip around the world and more.

Solar power borehole pump

To sum up, I think the exhibition was really successful. The show hall was quite busy even though we visit it on the last day. I am happy I haven’t missed the chance to gain more knowledge about solar energy.