Private Open Space In Accessible Housing
Outdoor space only counts as amenity if the resident can reach it, use it and return from it without help, which makes the threshold, the surface and the shade design decisions rather than landscaping ones.
What makes private open space usable in an accessible dwelling?
A step-free threshold, a firm and level surface with no abrupt changes, a door the resident can operate independently, shade so the space is usable in summer, and enough clear area to turn a wheelchair. Without those, the space exists on the plan and not in the resident's day.
Every dwelling plan shows private open space. Most residents in accessible housing use less of it than the plan implies, and usually for reasons that were fixable at design stage.
The threshold decides everything
The single most common barrier between a resident and their courtyard is the step at the door.
A conventional external doorway has a threshold, a weather bar and a step down to the paving, all of it there for good reasons to do with keeping water out.
Resolving that without creating a water problem is genuine detailing: a level threshold, a grated drain immediately outside, a fall away from the building, and a properly designed junction between the internal floor and the external surface.
In a factory-built dwelling that detail is designed once and built the same way every time, which is an advantage over resolving it on site under a deadline.
The door itself
A threshold a resident can cross is useless behind a door they cannot open.
**Width** enough for the chair they use now and the one they might use later, which is the [designing for change](/blog/designing-for-changing-resident-needs) principle again.
**Operable from a seated position,** which affects the handle type, the height, and the force required.
**A sliding door where space is tight,** with a track that does not become the level change the threshold just removed. Flush tracks exist and they need to be specified.
**Clear space on both sides,** so the door can be opened and passed through without reversing and repositioning.
The surface
**Firm and level,** because a wheelchair on soft or uneven ground does not move. Turf and loose gravel look pleasant and function as a wall.
**Slip resistant when wet,** and rated for it rather than assumed.
**No abrupt level changes,** including at the junction between paving types and at any drain.
**Wide enough to turn,** which is the requirement people underestimate. A path a chair can travel along but not turn on is a path to a dead end.
That is why the external works are designed with the dwelling rather than after it, and it is the substance of [landscaping and external works](/blog/landscaping-and-external-works) on an accessible project.
Shade is not optional
An unshaded courtyard in an Australian summer is unusable for anyone and unsafe for a resident who cannot regulate their own temperature or move themselves back inside.
Which means shade is part of the design, not an addition.
**Built shade** over at least part of the space: a veranda, a pergola, or an eave extended to cover the usable area. On a hybrid build this is frequently constructed as part of the base structure rather than the module, which is exactly the kind of element the site-built portion handles well.
**Orientation** that puts the usable space where it is not in full afternoon sun.
**Something at the boundary** for privacy, which also provides shade at the low sun angles.
Privacy
A courtyard overlooked by a neighbour, a driveway or a corridor is space a resident will not use.
That matters more in supported accommodation than in ordinary housing, because residents may have support workers present, may use equipment they would rather not have watched, and may have less control over who is in the dwelling.
Screening, fencing and planting at the right heights, resolved in the design rather than added by the resident later.
What the space is actually for
Worth asking, because the answer changes the design.
Sitting outside. Drying washing, which needs a line at an accessible height and a firm surface under it. Growing something, which needs raised beds at a workable height. A path to walk or wheel around, which needs a loop rather than a dead end. Space for a support vehicle, on some sites.
A courtyard designed for one of those works. A courtyard designed for none of them is paving.
The provider's view
For a Specialist Disability Accommodation provider, usable outdoor space affects how a dwelling is regarded and how long a resident stays.
It also affects staff, who supervise from inside or outside and need sightlines that do not require standing over somebody.
Both are design questions, and both are cheaper to answer before the base structure is set out than afterwards.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.