Flexible design comes from the understanding that homes outlast lifestyles. Family configurations change. Technology changes. “Things that suit our lifestyle today may not suit it 15 years or 150 years from now,” says Fernando Pagés Ruiz, owner of Brighton Construction in Lincoln, Neb., who recently worked on building the PATH (Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing) concept home.
Flexible design incorporates building elements, such as blocking installed at framing for future grab bar placement or stacked closets ready to become an elevator chase, that anticipate growth and change. But how does flexible design fit into remodeling?
Paul Irwin at Pattern Builders in Takoma Park, Md., believes that flexible design would alleviate the struggle between the cost and the value of remodeling. “Think about the time your crew spends on demolition — at least a week with three or four guys cutting stuff out of a house. That's a few hundred man-hours just to remodel a family room and kitchen. Contrast that with about 16 man-hours for a bulldozer to raze a site,” Irwin says.
Yet he acknowledges that it's difficult to remodel a building using flexible design and open-build principles. “We stick-build in this country,” Irwin says. “Electricians are trained to drill holes and fish wire through joists. Plumbers run pipe through floor joists. We run ductwork in the floor joist base. We are trained to entangle.”
A remodeler could consider using flexible design elements for an addition, since it is similar to new construction, but regardless of the project, “It's worth making an effort to stop and think, ‘What can I do to make things more accessible or make it easier for the next guy who will remodel this kitchen 20 years from now?'”
CLIENT NEEDSPaul Pellicani, an architect and the owner of Architect's Loft on Long Island, N.Y., makes a point of incorporating flexible design into his remodeling work. The first step, he says, is figuring out what clients want to achieve. “When we interview potential clients, we walk them through lifestyle-related questions and gauge how long they plan to stay in a particular house. Zero to 5 years requires a different approach from 5 to 50 years.”
Based on that knowledge, Pellicani makes suggestions and recommendations. With flexible design, you can't wait for people to ask you to do it, he says.
For example, Pellicani might design a den, for young children, in the back corner of the house on the first floor. “[In the future], we can always add an enlargement, which would allow for an additional couch or fireplace or large-screen TV. This should be studied up front at the schematic design phase so you can be aware of zoning considerations,” Pellicani says. Or, he will create open space by using spans of engineered lumber so there are no load-bearing walls. His company will suggest interior design options that include furnishings, fabrics, or partial walls as partitions.
Stephen Mabe of Stephen L. Mabe Building, in Winston-Salem, N.C., uses a similar sales approach based on his desire to create customers for life. “If our customer is planning for the long term … we try to get them to plan for the current project and phase their future project. There may be some extra short-term costs structurally,” Mabe says, “but we stress how [they can either] pay a little now or a lot more later. Most homeowners appreciate this level of professionalism.”
PLANNING FOR LONGEVITYA big part of flexible design is that it gives homeowners longevity in the house, especially as they age. Clients of Out of the Woods Construction & Cabinetry designer/project developer Nancy Nelson range in age from 40 years old to their early 50s.
Nelson discusses universal design elements — options that make the built environment accessible for the greatest number of users — with clients for now and for the future. “I assume everyone may eventually need it,” she says. “You deal with the project at hand, but it's easier to put in features now rather than retrofit them,” she says. This includes blocking for grab bars in the shower, or framing and plumbing for a future shower installation. When she designed her own house, Nelson installed rough plumbing in the floor of her bedroom for a future hot tub installation.
Although the CAPS — Certified Aging-in-Place — designation and the principles of universal design have gained some traction in recent years, Bill Bell, owner of Gotcha Covered Remodeling in Ellendale, Del., has struggled to promote his company's niche, finding that it's not yet mainstream. However, he promotes these design ideas with all of his clients, helping them to see that the concepts can be attractive as well as functional. “One client wanted a cool-looking ceramic tile shower. I made it a curbless shower and then explained why it didn't have a curb,” Bell says.
He installs zero-threshold entrances, 36-inch-wide doorways, rocker light switches, blocking behind walls for future grab bars, cabinets at varied heights, and levers that deliver cabinet contents to a convenient height. “If somebody notices it, then it's not a good example of universal design,” he says. “If I strap a wooden ramp to a house, it's not universal design. A gradually sloping sidewalk to the front door” is a better way to deliver the same convenience.
NEW TECHNOLOGYThe PATH concept home (www.pathnet.org/concepthomedemo/) is worth studying to learn about new products, as well as to get a glimpse of the future homes remodelers might be working on. In the house, in Omaha, Neb., Pagés Ruiz says they designed the front porch, which has a completely insulated concrete stoop, so it could easily be made into a bedroom. There's a powder room with a large closet that will eventually accommodate a bathtub, and the plumbing is already in the wall. The tall, elegant entry is built to handle an elevator shaft should that become necessary.
Though such design considerations sound like they might put a remodeler out of a job, by making things easier for DIYers, Irwin points out that handling the work that is hired out to remodelers will be more efficient.
“You have to educate consumers about lifestyle changes and provide them with options,” Pagés Ruiz says. “If they incur a big expense today, it need not have built-in obsolescence. The kids will outgrow the playroom in five years; you have to anticipate what that playroom will become.”