Universal Design Services
We offer expert advice tailored for your built environment project to help ensure spaces that are as inclusive, equitable and usable as possible for as many people as possible regardless of age, size, culture, ability or lack of ability.
Getting the details right is key to universal design and can make a big difference on how a space works and feels.
Universal design costs little to nothing when intentionally applied to a new build project. Conversely, having to modify spaces later to meet unconsidered needs is expensive.
A universally designed built environment enhances sustainable design. An environment that adapts to human diversity and the changing needs of each of us over our lifetime, without requiring modifications and renovations which consume resources and cost money.
The earlier in the project a universal design review is undertaken, the easier it is to ensure maximum building usability.
New Zealand has set out minimum requirements for accessibility in the built environment. Meeting these minimum requirements does not always result in an environment that meets the needs of the people using it. Universal design addressed that gap.
Reports
As standard we provide reports tailored to your project requirements. In addition to meeting the New Zealand Building Code requirements for accessibility, universal design reports include recommendations beyond minimum requirements to promote a built environment that is as universally useable as possible.
New buildings
Independent reviews of design and documentation of new buildings to ensure maximum accessibility and usability. Reviews are recommended as early as possible in the project, when inclusion of effective universal design features will be easiest and least expensive to integrate seamlessly into your project.
Existing buildings
Independent review of design and documentation of renovation projects to ensure maximum accessibility and usability.
Additionally many existing buildings, even if not undergoing renovation, will benefit from universal design upgrades to make them as accessible and usable as possible. We make recommendations that you can incorporate as your budget and resources allow. Often features that are meant as helpful for a specific group end up being beneficial to many more than originally anticipated.
Sharing Knowledge
We welcome questions about universal design, and we enjoy sharing information about how universal design benefits a suprisingly wide range of people and how universal design can help future proof the built environment.
Contact us about talking universal design with your group - what it means, how it fits into the built environment and the surprising range of people it benefits.
