Whole-Home Concept · 9 min read
Age-Friendly Living with Design: Safe, Accessible and Still Yours
It is a dark evening in the hallway, and you cannot find the keys in the cupboard because the light is not good enough. Last winter's knee operation has turned the bathtub into an obstacle and the loggia threshold into a trip hazard. Now imagine the same flat a few months on: soft light that switches on as you come in, a shower you simply walk into, and nothing that says "patient". Picture a couple in their early seventies in a 1960s apartment in Hietzing, third floor, lift, a view of greenery. They have lived there for thirty years and intend to stay. A friend had her bathroom converted for accessibility. "Works well," she says, "but it looks like a hospital." That is exactly what the two of them do not want.
Contents
- Age-friendly living: what it means and what it does not
- Why accessible solutions so often look clinical
- The basic rules of accessible living
- The bathroom: safety you cannot see
- Kitchen, bedroom and hallway
- Light and contrast: orientation without signal colours
- Clinical and designed solutions compared
- Plan before it is needed
- Frequently asked questions
- What happens next
Age-friendly living: what it means and what it does not
Age-friendly living means a home that supports you when strength, mobility or eyesight decline. It is about safety, independence and comfort. It is not about grab rails in signal colours, plastic seats and neon lighting.
People often equate the term with accessibility. Accessibility is a technical standard, described in Austria in ÖNORM B 1600. Age-friendly living goes further. It includes lighting, acoustics, reachable storage, simple operation and a home where you feel at ease. A flat can meet every standard and still be uncomfortable.
For our couple in Hietzing, then, the first question is not which grab rails they need. It is the question we ask in every project: how do you want to live? They want to keep entertaining, have breakfast on the loggia in summer, and grow old in a home that looks like them.
That wish is more demanding than any standard, because most accessible products were never designed to be liked. Why not?
Why accessible solutions so often look clinical
Many accessible products were developed for hospitals and care homes. There, hygiene, cleaning and compliance with standards come first, not atmosphere. Carry them one to one into a home and the home starts to look like a ward.
The second problem is timing. Accessible conversions often happen under pressure, after a fall or an operation. Everything has to be quick, so whatever is available gets used: a grab rail screwed into the old tiles, a shower tray set on the old floor, a fold-down seat on the wall.
Accessibility looks clinical when it is added afterwards. When it is planned in from the start, it simply looks generous.
The alternative is to treat accessibility as a design task. A level-access shower with a continuous floor helps with a walker and looks calmer than any tray. A wide door without a threshold suits a wheelchair and makes the room feel larger.
So what should a design-led plan actually include?
The basic rules of accessible living
ÖNORM B 1600 sets guide values that we use as a reference in age-friendly conversions. Not every flat reaches all of them, but every step towards them adds comfort. The key points:
- Avoid thresholds: Transitions between rooms and to the outdoor area at the same level wherever technically possible.
- Manoeuvring space: In bathroom and bedroom, a turning space of about 150 cm in diameter, so that you can turn with a walking aid or wheelchair.
- Door widths: At least 80 cm clear passage width, better 90 cm where new doors are being fitted anyway.
- Level-access shower: Without a step, with a slip-resistant floor and enough room for a seat.
- Wall reinforcements: In bathroom and WC behind the tiles, so that grab rails or seats can be fixed securely later.
- Controls: Switches, sockets and handles at a height that is easy to reach, in shapes that are easy to operate.
- Lighting: More and more even light than usual, glare-free, with orientation light at night.
These points sound technical, but in practice they come down to detailed planning. A turning space of 150 cm can often be achieved in a bathroom if the washbasin can be rolled under and the shower is open. A wider door can be a sliding door that disappears into the wall.
Imagine walking into your bathroom at night, barefoot. No step, no edge, a warm glow at floor level, and a floor that grips without feeling rough. That is what these numbers add up to. And the room where they matter most is the bathroom.
The bathroom: safety you cannot see
The bathroom is where age-friendly living achieves the most, and where it most often goes wrong. For our couple the tub comes out and a generous level-access shower takes its place. How this common conversion succeeds is described in the article Tub out, shower in. The technical questions of fall, waterproofing and build-up height are explained in the article Planning a level-access shower.
The shower screen is glass, fixed on one side only, so access stays clear. Inside is a built-in bench covered in the same large-format tiles as the walls and floor. It reads as a design feature and works as a place to wash your feet or rest. The floor tile has enough slip resistance for barefoot use.
Grab rails now come in shapes and finishes that match the taps, such as brushed stainless steel or brass, and some double as towel rails or shelves. The article on taps and their finishes helps with the choice. Where no rail is needed yet, wall reinforcements are built in, so later only drilling is required.
The vanity unit is made to measure, at a height that works standing and sitting, with drawers instead of doors so you never have to bend your knees. How to plan one is shown in the article Made-to-measure vanity units. The WC is wall-hung and set slightly higher than usual, which makes standing up easier. More detail is in the article on the accessible bathroom with a design standard, and our services are on the page about bathroom renovation.
A good bathroom is a start. The rest of the day happens in the kitchen, the bedroom and the hallway.
Kitchen, bedroom and hallway
Kitchen
In the kitchen it is mostly about reach. Wall units you can only get at with a stepladder give way to tall units with pull-outs. Base units get full-extension drawers instead of doors, so nobody searches dark corners. The oven sits at chest height, so heavy trays are never lifted from knee level. How the interior of a kitchen is thought through is described in the article on pull-outs and pantry units. You will find more about our fitted kitchens on the service page.
Bedroom
The bed is set at a height that makes getting up easier, with room on both sides. Beside it are switches for the room light and an orientation light that shows the way to the bathroom at night without dazzling. The wardrobe gets clothes lifts or shelves at a comfortable height.
Hallway
In the hallway you need a bench for putting on shoes, a fixed place for keys and glasses, and a light that comes on as you step in. How a hallway becomes a place of arrival is shown in the article on the entrance area.
All of this works only if you can see it. And eyes change.
Light and contrast: orientation without signal colours
With age the eye needs considerably more light to see equally well, and it reacts more strongly to glare. A flat that was bright enough at forty is often too dark at seventy. It is one of the most underestimated points in age-friendly living.
A good lighting concept works on several levels: even, glare-free ambient light, targeted task light in kitchen and bathroom, a reading light by the armchair and an orientation light at night. The basics are explained in the article on lighting design for the home. For the bathroom there is a separate article on bathroom lighting at the mirror.
Contrasts guide the eye without signal colours: a worktop that stands out from the fronts, a vanity unit that differs from the wall, a door frame in a different tone. These are design decisions that also give safety. A simple lighting control with scenes at the touch of a button makes daily life easier still, as shown in the article on smart home you cannot see.
How does all this look side by side with the clinical alternative?
Clinical and designed solutions compared
The overview shows how the same requirement can be met in a clinical or a designed way.
| Requirement | Clinical solution | Designed solution |
|---|---|---|
| Sitting in the shower | plastic fold-down seat | built-in tiled bench |
| Support in the bathroom | white plastic rails | rails in a tap-matching finish, some with a shelf function |
| threshold-free transition | ramps and wedges | continuous floor at the same level |
| wider doors | oversized standard door | floor-to-ceiling sliding door in the wall |
| Orientation | marking strips in signal colour | material contrasts, orientation light |
| Reachable storage | open shelves at grabbing height | fitted wardrobes with pull-outs and clothes lifts |
The difference lies rarely in the price and mostly in timing and planning. Anyone who builds accessibility into a conversion that was planned anyway often pays hardly more for the designed solution than for the clinical one.
When is the right moment to start?
Plan before it is needed
The best time for age-friendly living is before you need it. If you are renovating a bathroom at fifty or sixty, you can simply plan in a level-access shower, wall reinforcements and wider doors. How couples reorganise their house at this stage of life is described in the article on the life stage after the children have moved out.
What doing nothing costs. You put up with the high tub edge a little longer, take the step to the loggia carefully, and learn to live with the dim hallway. Each of those compromises is small. Together they decide whether a fall happens in your own home, and whether the rushed conversion that follows is the one you would have chosen.
For a threshold-free transition between rooms, a continuous floor is ideal, as described in the article on continuous floor coverings. On our couple's loggia a flush solution is not readily possible because of the waterproofing. Here the threshold is reduced as far as is technically justifiable and marked with light by a flat, continuous step. We clarify such detail questions with the specialists on site.
For accessible conversions there are partly subsidies in Vienna and Lower Austria. Which ones currently apply, and on what conditions, should be checked with the responsible bodies before you commission the work. You will find further examples on our bathrooms page.
Frequently asked questions
What does age-friendly living mean?
Age-friendly living means that a home stays safe and comfortable even as mobility, strength or eyesight decline. That includes threshold-free transitions, level-access showers, enough manoeuvring space, good lighting and reachable storage. Well planned, you can hardly tell, and you can keep living exactly where you are.
Which standard applies to accessible living in Austria?
The central standard is ÖNORM B 1600 for accessible building. Among other things it describes manoeuvring spaces, door widths and requirements for sanitary rooms. In private conversions it serves as a guide, even if not every value can be reached in every existing flat. We show you in the first call what is realistic in yours.
What does an accessible bathroom look like that does not feel clinical?
It has a level-access shower, a continuous floor, a built-in bench instead of a fold-down seat, and grab rails that match the taps. Wall reinforcements go in beforehand, so rails are fitted only when needed. A made-to-measure vanity unit with drawers is easy to use standing and sitting.
When should you convert an apartment for age-friendliness?
Ideally as part of a conversion that was planned anyway, before it becomes urgent. Accessibility can then be woven into the design and often costs hardly more. Under time pressure after a fall or an operation there is little room for that, which is why an early, calm conversation pays off.
Are there subsidies for accessible conversions in Vienna?
In Vienna and Lower Austria there are partly subsidies for accessibility measures. The conditions change, so current programmes and requirements should be checked with the responsible bodies before you commission the work. We take the requirements into account in the planning.
Does a level-access shower need a lot of build-up height?
It needs room for the drain and the fall. In some existing flats that is tight, but there are low-profile drain systems and solutions with a wall drain. Whether and how it works is checked during the survey, before you commit to anything.
