Assessor Livable Housing Design

George Saliba

Registered Assessor Livable Hosuing Australia

Introduction

What is Livable Housing Design?

A livable home is designed and built to meet the changing needs of occupants across their lifetime. Livable homes include key easy living features that make them easier and safer to use for all occupants including: people with disability, ageing Australians, people with temporary injuries, and families with young children.

A livable home is designed to:

• be easy to enter
• be easy to navigate in and around
• be capable of easy and cost-effective adaptation, and
• be responsive to the changing needs of home occupants

Livable homes enhance the quality of life of all occupants at all stages of their life.

What are the benefits of a livable designed home?

All Australians benefit from homes designed with comfort, safety and ease of access as core design features. These features make the home easier for parents to manoeuvre prams, easier to carry the shopping into the house, easier for people with disability or temporary injury to get around and easier to move furniture. These same features enable key living spaces to be more easily and cost effectively adapted to meet the changing needs and abilities of home occupants such as ageing baby boomers and people who have or acquire disability.

A livable designed home benefits:

• Families with young children

  • By making it easier to manoeuvre prams and strollers and removing trip hazards for toddlers.

• People who sustain a temporary injury

  • That limits their mobility (for example as a result of sporting or work-related injury or motor vehicle accident)

• Ageing baby boomers

  • who are looking to move or renovate their existing homes to better accommodate future needs.

• People with disability and their families

  • enabling them better choice of housing and the opportunity to visit the homes of friends and relatives

   

Livable Housing Design Guidelines

The levels of performance range from basic requirements through to best practice in livable home design. The levels are as follows:

Silver Level	Gold Level	Platinum Level
Seven core livable housing design elements Focuses on the key structural and spatial elements that are critical to ensure future flexibility and adaptability of the home. Incorporating these features will avoid more costly home modification if required at a later date.	Enhanced requirements for most of the core livable housing design elements plus additional elements. The gold level provides for more generous dimensions for most of the core livable housing design elements and introduces additional elements in areas such as the kitchen and bedroom.	Some further enhanced requirements for the core livable housing design elements plus all remaining elements. All 16 elements are featured in the platinum level. This level describes design elements that would better accommodate ageing in place and people with higher mobility needs. This level requires more generous dimensions for most of the core livable design elements and introduces additional elements for features such as the living room and flooring. Performance levels

Our Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings represent a trusted quality mark ? a seal of approval that attests to enhanced livability.

LHA?s goal is simple: we champion the adoption by 2020 of a Silver rating for all new homes.

It?s makes smart sense to commit to livability features when a home is first designed and built rather than wait for an unplanned need to arise. In fact, international research shows that it?s 22 times more efficient to design for adaptability up front.

Livability works for pregnant mums, young families with kids and people with sporting or traumatic injuries, as well as seniors, Australians with disability and their families.

Livability is an investment that makes both economic and social sense. It also offers peace of mind

Livable Housing Australia Website

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access ?mobility? solutions has been established by George Saliba who is a registered member of ACAA ? Association of Consultants in Access, Australia.

George has more than 20 years experience in the architectural field and, in 2000, founded his own architectural business, studio4design. After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) George used his knowledge of building and design to customise his home and workplace to suit his own access needs, gaining valuable experience in developing tailored access solutions. In creating access ?mobility? solutions, he now provides this service to others, in combination with extensive experience in both the creation and workings of the built environment.

?I believe that it was a natural transition to become an Access Consultant. As someone with first-hand knowledge of the architectural profession and, due to my illness, the experiences of a manual wheelchair user, I can provide a unique, dual perspective on access problems?.

?GOOD ACCESS has become an integral part of my life. I also live my life by my mantra:

With changes to legislation to deal with the changing needs of our population, GOOD ACCESS is increasingly becoming a significant issue for all of our community.

Whilst one may automatically think of people with a disability when considering access, parents with prams and the elderly also have access requirements.?access ?mobility? solutions would like to help to create a more accessible environment for EVERYONE.

access ?mobility? solutions, in conjunction with studio4design, aims to provide clients with effective, practical and cost effective solutions to achieve access compliance. Our skills and experience mean that we can contribute to all stages of a project, from concept design to construction. We believe that our early involvement can significantly increase the value and effectiveness of our service to our clients.

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access? ?mobility? solutions offers a wide range of services for clients to enhance new and existing premises and to create facilities and services which are accessible to all people; from those with a particular disability, to seniors and parents with prams. We assist with achieving compliance with relevant legislation, access codes and regulations. We provide:

• ?Access and Adaptability Reports for Development Applications and/or Construction Certificates?
• ?Access Auditing of Existing Buildings, Playgrounds, Recreational Areas, Hotels, Streetscape, Transport Premises and Infrastructure?
• ?Development of Disability Action Plans
• Review relevant documents and policy
• Plan Appraisals
• Design Advice (Access Solutions)
• Alternative Solutions
• Site Inspections and Attendance of Site Meetings

These services help to provide clients with practical solutions that best satisfy the objectives of the Premise Standards and the Disability Discrimination Act.

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