Greetings all!

We have been super busy at my architecture firm, Stadler &. I do intend on debriefing you all on the previous At Home with Growing Old group meetings, but today I would like to debut a speculative project we have been working on in the office: Apartment A.

For nearly a year now, between projects, we have been working on a small “dream apartment” which would go against most conventional notions of what housing for older people ought to be. It would have lots of storage, but the storage would be organized in very specific ways. The space would be comfortable, but it would use the footprint of an ample but basic studio apartment, and it would feature plenty of built in furniture. We wanted to draw from different disciplines to achieve a kind of safety and comfort that would inspire delight. To that end, we used climbing grips instead of grab bars in the shower, and playground surface with a drain pan underneath instead of a regular shower pan in the bath.

We explored many iterations, and finally sent our most recent version to be rendered by the talented folks at Pirate Design. Voila! Apartment A is alive. Of course, we hope that we will captivate the imagination of developers to the end of building this, however, there are affordable principles behind Apartment A are transferable to new or rehab construction.

Soon, we will release more images of this project, so please check back here or at www.stadlerarch.com for updates. Meanwhile, I will be at the Build Boston 2011 conference, and I will be giving a presentation on the future of Mixed-Use Development and being “At Home With Growing Old” – please attend if you’re in the area!

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