Heard About the "Universal Design" Concept of Housing ?

The term "Universal Design" refers to a wide range of architectural and construction concepts, products and services intended to make buildings of all kinds, products and environments more accessible to both able-bodied and physically challenged people. Home builders across Georgia in towns where retirees t4emd to be looking for homes are beginning to catch on and embrace this rapidly evolving trend.

According to Dick Plumb, a Sarasota real estate broker with experience helping retirees buy new homes or refurbish existing homes in the sarasota and Bradenton areas of Florida says that the universal design concept evolved from the earlier designation of "barrier-free" products and the overall "accessibility" movement. Those efforts focused on blending adaptive and assistive technologies to achieve functionality and aesthetics in products at the same time.

As life expectancy increases along with modern medicine increases in the survival rate of those with significant injuries, illnesses, and birth defects, there is a growing interest in universal design by many forward-thinking architects and builders. There are industries in which universal design has already achieved strong market penetration, but there are also others where universal design is still only a concept, not a product design criteria. For example, while curb cuts and sidewalk ramps, essential for people in wheelchairs but also used by all, are a common example, the home building industry has just recently become interested in the universal design concept.

Many homes in the Tampa Bay Florida real estate market are already being built with "universal design" features that will help today's baby boomers stay in their homes longer as they age. As more and more people decide to move to Georgia rather than put up with the over crowded conditions and awful traffic found in most Florida cities, this concept will surely become more commonplace here in Georgia as well.

There are already some homes being built in the Atlanta - Marietta real estate market with kitchen and bathroom cabinets with pull-out shelves, options for kitchen counters at several different heights to accommodate different tasks and postures as well as wheelchairs. Walk-in bathtubs are also being requested more and more often. There is also rapidly expanding use of lever door handles in place of standard door knobs making it easier for people with disabilities (as well as moms carrying a baby or bags of groceries) to open or close a door.

Perhaps the most interesting facet of this new "universal design" concept is how quickly growing numbers of young Georgia families are beginning to ask for such "easy-to-use" features in the homes they are considering building or buying, According to Janet Dugan, a respected Sarasota golf course homes expert, she finds more and more retirees asking for "universal design" features in the homes they want to consider buying. But, she acknowledges, younger families seem to be almost as interested as retirees in this new housing concept.

Any experienced Georgia Realtor can help you find builders employing "universal design" concepts in their new homes and a number of Atlanta area remodeling firms are now offering to install such products.