A group from Canada has won the Team Prize in the World Cerebral Palsy (CP) Day competition to design a house for people with cerebral palsy who experience unsteady balance and movement.
The project consisted of a significant redesign of an existing Canadian home and considered a range of issues in the proposed design features of the home. The three points of focus were on environmental, cultural, and emotional factors for those living with the disease.
Our design is safety and beauty with the challenges of cerebral palsy in mind. We implemented universal design principles, functionality, flexibility, simplicity, low physical effort, wrapped in an aesthetically pleasing living environment, reads a statement on the team’s website.
Their proposal involved the renovation of a typical Canadian bungalow by stripping out the partitions and cabinets to achieve “flexibility in size and functions.” This means one continuous level surface floor on a thick cork underlay throughout, complete with radiant flooring for warmth and comfort – especially in the middle of a Canadian winter. It features everything from oil-rubbed wood floors throughout to a recessed teak mat in the shower.
Materials introduced are inspired from the softness of a sponge while remaining natural, resilient, and easy to maintain, states the website.
To embrace movement and make it easier, the outside corners of the residence were designed curvilinear, including horizontal and vertical surfaces. Of course, the bathroom was rendered wheelchair-friendly, with easy-to-access features, like a recessed wall-hung toilet, walk-in bathtub, and no-curb walk-in shower. The kitchen is complete with a wall oven, cooktop, drawer-type appliances, and a mobile harvest table.
When it came to lighting, the selections were inspired by therapy colours from LED and large textural pendants in the airspace.
Further serenity can be found thanks to the floor-to-ceiling glass in the sunroom, which invites the sunlight and green of the outdoors inside. To get closer to nature, residents enjoy easy access to the backyard, which features no shortage grass and trees, along with a raised herb garden.
The Canadian team is comprised of a group of multi-cultural architects and interior designers.
World Cerebral Palsy Day is this Wednesday, October 7.
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