Can the climate crisis help us provide more accessible homes?
Clare Bond is an architect at Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, specialising in 
sustainable and inclusive design. In addition to project work at SWA, Clare was previously a runner up in Habinteg’s 50th birthday essay competition and has undertaken research with members of Habinteg’s Insight group, exploring ways architects and designers can make the built environment more accessible and inclusive. Below she discusses the challenges to the UK’s existing housing stock and asks, can the UK’s climate response better serve disabled people, and wheelchair users in particular?
At Sarah Wigglesworth Architects (SWA) ‘eco-humanism’ describes our ethos for addressing the impact of climate change on human beings. It’s a holistic environmental position that ‘sustainability’ isn’t green buildings in isolation, but people-centred, social impact through design.
It asks us, as building designers, to place users’ needs at the heart of our approach, particularly the needs of the most vulnerable in our society, including wheelchair users.
The goal of each project we work on is to expand social capital, mitigate the environmental impact and promote the economic equity of people associated with our work throughout its life span.
Existing housing stock – the challenge
To achieve the UK’s 2050 Net Zero targets, it’s critical that we retrofit (an energy-focused refurbishment) our housing stock to improve its environmental performance. LETI have published that 80% of 2050’s homes have already been built and that around 18% of our annual national CO2e emissions come from existing homes - homes that will still be standing in 2050.
This means that over one million homes every year for the next 30 years will need to be retrofitted. LETI suggests we need to reduce the energy consumption of the average UK home by 60-80%. This is achievable through a whole house retrofit approach, including upgrading the building fabric, improving ventilation and installing renewables, delivering us efficient, resilient and healthier homes.
Habinteg’s 2020 Forecast for Accessible Homes identified at least 1.2 million UK wheelchair users and a rapidly ageing population, and The Centre for Ageing Better has identified that nine in 10 homes currently do not meet minimum standards of accessibility.
If we need to retrofit existing homes at a rate of one million every year to reduce energy consumption and meet Net Zero targets, we should be using this opportunity to simultaneously tackle the nine in 10 of those homes which aren’t meeting the accessibility requirements of our population, notably those of wheelchair users. Small changes to these retrofit projects could increase the social, economic and environmental impact they have on the people living there.
Combining environmental & accessibility upgrades
In 2019, SWA undertook the retrofit of 9/10 Stock Orchard Street - our office and director Sarah Wigglesworth’s home.
The first phase focused on reducing the energy demand of the house and improving user comfort. The second phase incorporated design proposals for ageing in place. User-friendly alterations in the bathroom, kitchen and circulation ensured the building is practical for a change in user mobility, including planning for a scenario where someone living in or visiting the home is using a wheelchair.
With a builder already on site undertaking the environmental works, the inclusion of accessibility adaptations for wheelchair use was more cost effective and less disruptive than a stand-alone refurbishment project.
The environmental upgrades included new Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR), additional insulation and improved airtightness, new windows/rooflights and LED lighting. These led to CO2 emissions being reduced by 62%, meeting LETI’s retrofit target.
While the environmental improvements offer greater comfort, other 
functional improvements were also needed to address accessibility needs, including safe wheelchair use. Accordingly, a level-access shower was installed in the bathroom, grab rails were installed in the bath surround, handrails were added to the stair and landing, the gas hob was removed and replaced with an induction hob and the below-worktop oven was replaced with one at a higher level.
The utility room was converted into a separate, fully equipped kitchen for a 
carer, relative or resident (if required). Together with the bedroom and separate bathroom, this makes the ground level effectively a level access private suite, suitable for wheelchair users to comfortably live or visit.
A location was also identified for a future lift to access the first floor, should this be required. With window and door replacement for environmental reasons, there was also an opportunity to improve the usability of the ironmongery and opening mechanism to better suit the needs of wheelchair users.
Pushing boundaries
Typically, planning permission is not required for internal works such as these, and often external changes also fall into permitted development and planning permission isn’t required.
That said, there are many other creative ways to combine environmental upgrades with accessibility requirements for wheelchair users, particularly if planning permission is being sought. For example, external works such as external wall insulation and replacement of windows/doors can incorporate the widening of openings and provision of level access through lowered thresholds or ramped access.
Our ‘retrofit at scale’ work in Warwick was primarily focused on social housing decarbonisation, improving the thermal comfort and energy efficiency of three different house typologies, including bungalows.
Planning permission was sought to use the environmental retrofit as an opportunity to generally improve the appearance of the building. This also allowed us to propose the changes outlined above, providing ramped access to bungalows, and widening doors for manoeuvrability.
Wherever possible, the specific requirements of each wheelchair user need to be factored into each project to ensure measures are both suitable and go far enough. That said, we should be seeking to improve access for wheelchair users in all homes to meet demand.
These projects show us that the importance of bettering the accessibility of our new build housing stock does not change, however, we hope that they also begin to demonstrate how our climate response can better serve the holistic needs of the UK population, particularly wheelchair users and others who are disabled by poor housing.
