The Thesis Journey

I worked a bit on my thesis tonight and I think I have made some progress.

First, I went through all the previous work and picked out key words:

1. Part 9


2. FlexHousing


3. Fair Housing Act


4. Case Study


5. Recommendations


6. List


7. Practical

Then, I collected some questions and suggestions that had come up in feedback on my submissions:

1. Who is it being designed for?


2. Are these solutions practical?


3. Elaborate on how you will apply the research.


4. Will the result be a design? Will the design be built and tested?


5. Why are there no provisions for accessibility in single family homes under Part 9?

So what have I come up with so far? Well, something poorly constructed but I think I'm on the right track:

A list of recommendations guided by the principles of FlexHousing and the Fair Housing Act of the cheapest and easiest renovations for addapting a Part 9 building to be more physically-handicapped accessible; Case Study

Maybe that's more of a title.

Yes, I'm still alive

Wow, it has been awhile. But anyways, a more effective thesis statement that I had written at the end of my outline was pointed out to me:

"How can the principles of the American Fair Housing Act and Canadian FlexHousing be used to create better modification solutions?"

Therefore, looks like I'm going to focusing on renovations for the purpose of making a home more physically-handicap accessible home, and how the principles of the mentioned design acts guide these renovations.

Make sense? I don't know. I'm awful at creating effective thesis statements. It's probably because I'm just as poor at organizing my thoughts and interests. But thankfully, that's why I'm in school. What I do know, however, is that I want to write about what a building can do to help someone and that a building can help someone.

Updated Outline

Adapting Homes
EDDT 231 - Applied Research Outline

Project

How can an older home be adapted to be more handicap accessible and at what point does it become unfeasible?


Method

1. Defining the situations when it would be preferred to modify an existing house


2. Examine key areas that need modification for chosen case study house


3. Compare case house to researched adaption challenges


4. Discuss researched available solutions


5. Theoretically apply solutions to case house


6. Generalize findings for application purposes


7. Make recommendations for similar cases

Special Problems

1. At what point where modifying an existing home should be compromised for building a new house?


2. How do different handicaps change the modifications that need to be done?

Also

1. How can the principles of the American Fair Housing Act and Canadian FlexHousing be used to create better modification solutions?

Information Sources

Heylighen, A. (2008). Sustainable and inclusive design: a matter of knowledge?. Local Enviroment, 13(6), 531-540.

Imrie, R. (2004). Disability, Embodiment and the Meaning of the Home. Housing Studies, 19(5), 745-763

Renzi, J. (2008). Accessibility makes for a movable feast. Architectural Record, 196(7), 180-180.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (1999). FlexHousing: Homes that adapt to life’s changes. Ottawa.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (2000). FlexHousing: The professionals’s guide. Ottawa.

Alonso, Fernando. (2002). The benefits of building barrier-free: A contingent valuation of accessibility as an attribute of housing. European Journal of Housing Policy 2 , 1, 25-44.

Lansley, P., McCreadie, C., & Tinker, A. (2004). Can adapting the homes of older people and providing assistive technology pay its way?. Age and Ageing, 33, 571-576.

Friedman, A. (2002). The Adaptable House: Designing Homes for Change. McGraw-Hill Professional.

Photographs

One way to describe accessible adaptions would be to access regular, normal homes.

One house that is defenately no less regular is my one house. I plan to use it as a case study for my paper.

I've taken some initial photos but I'm planning to do a more in depth photographic analysis soon.



This is the front entrance. It wouldn't be too difficult to build a ramp because there is some side walk space.


Right off the batt, there isn't enough room for someone in a wheelchair to even close the door.


The cabinet can be pulled out to make under the sink available, but I don't think it would make much of a difference since the bathroom already has space limitations.

Internet Info!

I would like to introduce to you "Skeptoid: Critical Annalysis of Pop Culture Phenomena". It mostly deals with pseudoscience but here are a couple of articles that might be applicaple to our topics:

How to Identify a "Good" Scientific Journal

Water: Alternative Fuel of the Future?

Scientists are Not Created Equal

---

I found this article on the Province website. It's not related to accessibility design but it is still funny to read.

Bad Taste Does Exist

Update

Thank you guys for the awesome posts that I've gotten so far. They are really helpful.

Unfortunately, a certain comment on my last assignment suggested that FlexHousing wasn't a good idea. Therefore, I am reverting back to my original topic, but it is still pretty close to FlexHousing, so all those comments are still applicable!

My topic will be: "The Benefits and Disadvantages of Modifying an Existing Home to be more Accessible for People with Disabilities."

I will be uploading a new outline, followed by the abstract shortly.

Outline

Technical Report Outline
EDDT 231 - Assignment #1

Project

The need for FlexHousing in Canada

Method

1. What is FlexHousing?
2. What are its benefits?
3. Why will it benefit Canada?
4. How will it benefit Canada?

Special Problems

1. What prevents a person from designing a FlexHouse?
2. What prevents developers from building FlexHouses?
3. Why would someone not want to make a FlexHouse?
4. What needs to be taken to make it a more available option?

Also

1. How does FlexHousing contribute to accessibility for the disabled?

Information Sources
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (1999). FlexHousing: Homes that adapt to life’s changes. Ottawa.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (2000). FlexHousing: The professionals’s guide. Ottawa.

Alonso, Fernando. (2002). The benefits of building barrier-free: A contingent valuation of accessibility as an attribute of housing. European Journal of Housing Policy 2 , 1, 25-44.

Lansley, P., McCreadie, C., & Tinker, A. (2004). Can adapting the homes of older people and providing assistive technology pay its way?. Age and Ageing, 33, 571-576.

Friedman, A. (2002). The Adaptable House: Designing Homes for Change. McGraw-Hill Professional.

FlexHousing

So, I have decided to pursue a different term. This term is "FlexHousing" and was mentioned to me in a comment on my last post (Thanks Dale!).

FlexHousing is a concept developed by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation that illustrates the need to design homes in ways that allow it to adapt to the occupants changing needs over a long period of time. As Dale had suggested in his post, it is probably the closest Canadian equivalent to the Fair Housing Act in the United States.

The dynamics of a family change over time. Usually, this would be accommodated for by simply moving to a new house. For example: A child is born, move to a big house; when the children leave home, move to a smaller house.

But what if you had a house that adapted to these life changes? Maybe an office could be made into two bedrooms and maybe the basement could be made into a separate dwelling unit that can be rented out.

This is very interesting to me. I think, in my paper, that I am going to argue the need for more FlexHousing in Canada, especially since the proportion of seniors in the entire population is in the process of changing.

---

Research Notes

CMHC on FlexHousing
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/buho/flho/

FlexHousing: Building Adaptable Housing
https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/b2c/b2c/init.do?language=en&shop=Z01EN&areaID=0000000035&productID=00000000350000000142

Possible Sources
http://enablelink.ca/include/article.php?aid=1107&cid=&pid=&subid=

Canadia Centre of Housing Technology
http://www.ccht-cctr.gc.ca/main_e.html

"FlexHouse Guided Tour"
http://www.ccht-cctr.gc.ca/docs/flexhouse_e.pdf

News
http://www.ccht-cctr.gc.ca/news/newsletter1_e.pdf



"Can adapting the homes of older people and providing assistive technology pay its way? [Article]"
http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/33/6/571

"The Adaptable House: Designing Homes for Change [Book]"
http://books.google.ca/books?id=B-qVb__HjxUC&dq=The+Adaptable+House:+Designing+
Homes+for+Change&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=p3GI9rqrVz&sig=duw7ESiUx9-cyTPelzkCn2bGpMo&hl=en&ei=ZAWqSc3NAoimtgO9x5VJ&sa=X&oi=
book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA20,M1

"THE BENEFITS OF BUILDING BARRIERFREE: A CONTINGENT VALUATION OF ACCESSIBILITY AS AN ATTRIBUTE OF HOUSING [Article]"
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.tru.ca/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=102&sid=e3922354-078c-40bc-aaa3-f6d04c47e85f%40sessionmgr104

"DESIGN FOR EVERYONE [Article, List of References]"
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.tru.ca/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=102&sid=e3922354-078c-40bc-aaa3-f6d04c47e85f%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=34614697

In Search of a Thesis

Coming up with a complete thesis has been difficult, especially within the context of a analytical report. It would would be very easy to do an information report; discussing things like "The need for building adaptability in Canadian Legislation." But then it would be like an essay from an English class instead of a report from an Architectural Technology program.

Anyways, I'm just going to post some links to a very quick book search I did on amazon.com for future reference.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Guide-Fair-Housing-Accessibility/dp/0471395595/
ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234462387&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Fair-Housing-Design-Manual-Accessibility/dp/0894992392/
ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Guide-ADA-Disabilities-Accessibility/dp/0470108703/
ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Dimension-Interior-Space-Reference/dp/0823072711/
ref=pd_sim_b_1

Mission Statement

I've always had the belief that people should not have to adapt to architecture; architecture should adapt to people. This is the primary motive behind my research topic "Making Houses More Accessible". I am planning to explore ways of solving problems that arise when adapting residential housing to accommodating people with disabilities.

My thesis statement is still in it's early stages and may evolve further as my research begins to get deeper.

And now, courtesy of Failblog.org, moments to remind us why design needs to have people in mind.