Accessible housing design: Put pleasure over procedure

According to guidance published by RIBA, a well-designed bathroom is often the key to dignity and independence.

The guidance – Age Friendly Housing – says,

“Hospital-style bathrooms have made bathing a procedure rather than a pleasure for older and disabled people but safety and practicality no longer need to come at the expense of style”.

It cites as exemplar of well-designed accessible bathrooms the inclusion of fixtures such as wash & dry toilets.

Closomat is the leading brand of wash dry toilets, also known as shower toilets, smart toilets or automatic toilets, which combine integrated douching and drying within the WC so there is no need to manually wipe.

Its latest models, the wall-hung Asana and floor-mounted Palma Vita, reflect several of the features and benefits referenced in the age-friendly housing guidance. They deliver contemporary styling with the best performance in douching and drying. The Asana features a low level soft ambient light, facilitating its location in the dark/at night. The Palma Vita is unique in that it can be accessorised, initially and retrospectively, to suit the individual’s changing needs.

Robin Tuffley, Closomat marketing manager observes,

“Age friendly housing is actually about designing homes for life. The bathroom is the most common room to be adapted to accommodate a person’s needs, and the toilet is actually the most commonly altered fixture therein. Appropriate design (and execution) at the outset can reduce or eliminate the need for adaptation later, with all its financial, physical and psychological cost, and enable someone to enjoy living in their home, for life, with optimum dignity and independence.”

Closomat’s website is the ‘go to’ resource for specifiers involved in designing for ageing and/or disabled people, with a raft of white papers, NBS specifications, CAD blocks to simplify the process and deliver an appropriate, compliant solution.

The expertise within the company represents the combined wealth of knowledge amassed from almost 60 years of helping disabled people optimise their dignity and independence in the bathroom, at home and away.