Dannii Laura Humphries

Adapting Dwellings for Building Users with Disabilities

Dannii has a keen interest in inclusive design and medical space design, focusing on the building user experience in a practical and realistic manner. 

This research was undertaken to determine how an existing dwelling can be adapted to comply with a disabled user’s needs. The measurable standards required for the research referred to criteria from the Building Regulations 2010 Part M Volume 1: Dwellings, Category 2- Accessible and adaptable dwellings. This project adapted an existing new build dwelling (which was inaccessible in design) and produced two differing feasible design proposals which met the criteria above, as well as designing in a flexible manner for potential additional requirements or adaptions.

A cost analysis was then undertaken on both designs.
Projected construction and labour costs for Proposal A and B were obtained by gathering quotes from suppliers and industry professionals and where possible, three quotes were estimated per item or works and an average taken, for result findings.

The existing property is estimated at an average value of £250,000.00
The approximate cost for Proposal A adaptions totalled £159,626.34.
The approximate cost for Proposal B adaptions totalled £135,692.81.
There was a difference of £23,933.53 between Proposal A and Proposal B.