Chris Craiker, Architex’s Angle: An architect’s movable feast

Architex’s Angle

An architect’s movable feast

CHRIS CRAIKER

Ihave been complaining for years that our fixtures and cabinets should be adjustable. advocate making bathrooms huge like commercial and multifamily ADA requirements, but I do recThey should be able to move up, ommend the toilets be adjustable down and around to fit our uses, and sinks should rise or lower to not the other way around. Now, permit wheelchair access or simas limited space ply be more accessible by all ages within our homes and heights. Showers can be level becomes more with the adjacent floor and the critical and as we fixtures can manually be adjusted age and need per- with minimum strength. sonalized fixtures, We don’t need more space in it is time for us our bathrooms; we need more

CHRIS to think seriously creative collaboration. ( pressalit.

CRAIKER about how to com/en-us/accessible-bathmake our homes rooms/) more flexible. You might think all of these

Adjustable cabinets that move appliance and fixture suggestions up and down for accessibility of require powerful electric engines disabled or disadvantaged have but the future will allow minibeen around for years. As their mum human strength to make cost goes down, these simple simple adjustments, or small elecadditions can make every kitchen tric engines with battery power, workable. Adjustable countertops not our old friend PG&E, to have also been available but very make them function year-round utilitarian and not interesting and blackout usable. in design. Freestanding kitchen A firm out of Boston, Ori Livislands are all the current rage and ing, has an interesting movable allowing all or a part of the coun- wall system. Made especially for tertop to adjust to the individual tight urban apartments. A movfor use and enjoyment is a win/ able wall unit that includes cabwin for all. inets and work counters can be

We don’t think of the bath- used during the day and moved room or its fixtures as needing on wheels at night to make room adjustability, but they certainly for the bed that can drop, safely do. Especially as you get older or of course, from the ceiling, conperhaps are in a wheelchair, even verting the studio living room for a short period of time. I don’t into a bedroom in minutes. A

Chris Craiker illustration

solution not only for our urban apartments but our college dorms could use. ( www.oriliving.com/)

And we mustn’t forget how important elevators and lifts will be for all of us. As densities climb and our lots become smaller, two and three-story homes are becoming more common. Architects and contractors should consider including in their designs an elevator space and shaft layout to make future life easier when the occupants get older, or simply want access to upper or lower home levels.

Of interest, we shouldn’t forget the simple dumb waiter. First invented by the Egyptians, Roman architects installed them in palaces to move goods, up and down from cellars. Thomas Jefferson, our third president and part-time architect, installed two in Monticello, his Virginia home, to transport wine and fancy banquets from his basement. He could be considered our first infrastructure designer.

Unfortunately, it required slave laborers to operate the pulleys. Jefferson believed these inventions made slavery more palatable, but they only kept the South trapped in a losing economic culture.

We can use our brains for inspiration making our lives better through an exploration of what we can, not what we think we can’t. We just have to thinkoutside-the-box.

Chris d Craiker AIA/NCARB has been designing Sustainable Green buildings for over 40 years and likes to push the envelope.