No lifts, no stairs, no steps and no barriers: an innovation in the care and long-term support and socialisation for people with physical disabilities
If at first this proposal sounds like it might begin as an architectural competition, then that is precisely my intention.
My proposal is multilayered in the suggests that there could be considerable savings of scale to be made in the way that people like myself with physical disabilities are supported and accommodated.
Further, and very much by way of improving opportunities for socialisation and integration, my early work experience as a member of a workers co-operative providing conference accommodation for person centred organisations with small budgets has proven to me that there is a substantial need for meeting and conference space that could generate substantial sums of money that could cover the running and operational costs of such an innovative type of building.
The early 1980s, from an overdraft of £3000 I was part of a team that grew a conference business with a turnover of £250,000 per annum during a five-year period.
Clearly, the circumstances in which the business operated were rather different. In our case, we’ve benefited from the provision of a substantial Victorian estate by the goodwill of its owner at a peppercorn rent, and located only 3 miles or so from Leeds city station, we were ideally placed to attract a national audience.
But the need still remains today for businesses of all kinds to find affordable conference and meeting space, on both a daily basis and on a residential basis.
For the purposes of an architectural competition, I have plucked out all my head the notion that the capacity to accommodate 30 to 40 people on a residential basis in single rooms would be initially adequate, with perhaps 10 additional twin rooms that were organised so that they were fully disabled access suited, perhaps in such a way that carers and cared for people of different sexes might have sufficient privacy within that accommodation.
In addition, on a more permanent basis, accommodation for between 10 and 20 people with a variety of needs would need to be created, and their accommodation might consist of the kind of space within which all of their living needs could take place - such as a small bedsit.
On-site catering would be an important component of servicing conference needs, and on a day-to-day basis should be able to accommodate meetings of up to 150 people plus the residential people and their carers.
A licensed bar could be included, although some innovation might look at the way in which this is an innovation in what it stocks.
So for an example, it might be much more like a cafe bar rather than simply an alcohol bar, and indeed could offer a wide range of alcohol free and healthy drinks as an alternative for everyone when socialising.
It is such a building used the most recent innovations in every aspect of its accommodation and the way in which it were designed to be fully accessible by people in wheelchairs, then it might also be attractive for use in respect of functions such as wedding receptions, and indeed it should be attractively presented with work commissioned by a range of artists in disciplines that would make it an attractive space in which to meet.
A multiplicity of breakout rooms could be used for all kinds of specialist small meetings, and should be equipped with a high level of technical equipment.
This level of technical equipment would of course be available outside of conference times for the use of residents, and it may be possible for residents to be able to contribute to some of the work supporting the conference business, such as graphic design for the creation of reports and follow-up for each event.
Any fees that might be generated could be made over to the social enterprise at the heart of this community business, because of the sensitive earning position of those people.
One of the principal benefits of such integrated living and working circumstances would be the way in which residents would be able to socialise with visiting conference and meeting attenders, and if more than one of these kind of facilities were to exist, as centres of excellence in their accessibility, it would make it possible for residents to be able to have a change of environment, typical hotel accommodation be out of the question for the majority of them.
It may be possible to have some additional services available to be rented out to commercial purposes, and so for example it may be advisable for someone like cooperative legal services to have a branch office within the premises. Preference should always be given to the type of business and how it is structured, so that other community businesses or cooperatives might be deemed more suitable.
If constructed on a brownfield site, there may be scope for substantial parking, for the use of residents, residents families and carers, and of course those attending meetings.
I stressed at the beginning of the concept of no barriers, and the use of technology for door opening and the ability of wheelchair users to access all areas with the minimum of assistance is critical.
Hence the idea of access to different levels being by way of gentle slopes rather than by lifts or by stairs.
