Sharing Doors
“I’m not too old for that”
• Foreword
• Foreword
The door is the entry point to the home, and usually the first point of physical interaction. It is something that can uniquely distinguish a home and add to the character of the architecture. It is something that can act as separation between the outside world and the personal space within.
It is a given fact that the UK has an ageing population. As healthcare and technology get better, it is inevitable that we live longer. This should be a good thing, right? But with more people living longer, and with a housing supply that cannot keep up, we end up with a crisis. This is perpetuated even more when housing by design is biased towards younger, more able people.
Since Margaret Thatcher introduced the Right-to-Buy of social housing in the 1980’s, millions of homes have been sold through the scheme to tenants. You can usually tell which were sold through the scheme from observation, due to their differing door panels. When mass council housing was built, the design tended to be monotonous, with elements such as doors being consistent in at least style across the whole estate. Repetition throughout the design of council homes kept costs to a minimum. Though, once purchased, the occupiers were able to make their home unique to them. Many then did not want their home to be associated with being a ‘council house’, and one of the easiest ‘fixes’ for this was replacing the front door. Though the door may be seen as a banal architectural element, it is more than just a piece of architecture, it carries with it political and social depth, which I have begun to explore in this project named ‘sharing doors’.
The question and potential solution I am beginning to explore is: “How can we solve this housing crisis by designing homes specifically for an ageing population? Is there a way we can create homes that will ultimately reduce demand on health and social care, whilst still improving access to housing for those on housing waiting lists?” Eventhough this problem is not limited to one particular place, I will situate myself within The Pepys Estate in Lewisham as a microcosm to explore and demonstrate how Local Authority estates can be adapted to become age-friendly through physical and social architecture.
