H
ave you ever woken up one day and thrown on an old pair of jeans only to find that – hang on a minute – they no longer fit the way they used to? It can be a frustrating reminder that we’re all growing and changing, sometimes in ways we don’t like. Not many things in this world are ‘one size fits all,’ of course. But while an ill-fitting pair of jeans can be tossed aside easily enough, things get tricky when the thing that no longer fits is your own home. That’s where the concept of adaptable housing – an approach to design in which a home can be modified to fit the changing needs of its residents – comes in. It is estimated that by the year 2036, more than half of all Canadian households will be headed by people 55 years or older; as such, “housing with flexible features that can accommodate occupants’ changing requirements easily and inexpensively will be in high demand,” according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. That puts The Westerly, a 39-suite condo development currently under construction adjacent to the Fairwinds Landing, in a prime position to accommodate Fairwinds residents for years to come. And it’s why accessibility and adaptability are being built into the project’s design from the ground up. Adaptability goes hand in hand with accessibility, but “you have to be careful not to confuse the two,” says Leo Mariotto, The Westerly project manager. Accessibility ensures that a person with a disability is able to approach, enter, and make use of an area and its features without assistance, whereas adaptability means a home can be modified to be more accessible
as required by its residents over time. By making a home adaptable, it ensures residents won’t have to move out due to illness, injury, or aging. “You never know what’s going to happen to somebody,” says Mariotto. To that end, most of the 39 suites in The Westerly will be built with a number of features to promote adaptability. These include: bathroom walls adjacent to the toilet and a bathtub or shower that are able to accommodate the installation of grab bars, increased clear floor space on both sides of one bathroom and one bedroom door, and ensuring outlets intended for use by occupants are located between 1.5 and four feet above the floor. Those features come on top of general inclusions for accessibility, like access from the street to the main building entrance, common area corridors and passageways being a minimum of four feet wide, access to mailboxes in the lobby, and so on. “We always try to include adaptability features wherever possible,” says Mariotto. And so, those who choose to make their home in The Westerly will find that, no matter what may happen, they’ll be able to stay where they are in comfort – and with peace of mind. So, with a loosening or tightening of the belt, those well-fitting pair of jeans are in fact very much like The Westerly - adaptable. Learn more about adaptable housing in BC:
housing.gov.bc.ca/building/reg/accessible Register to receive updates:
thewesterly.ca
WINTER 2017 / 2018 | PASSIONS 19