The Renner Companies

In the last two articles we gave a brief overview of what Universal Design and Aging in Place issues are all about as well as the differences between the two.

In Part One of this series, we gave you a very brief idea of what Universal Design and Aging in Place is all about. We would like to expand upon that in this installment. The term Universal Design (UD) has a fairly broad scope. Aging in Place really is a portion of UD. The definition of Universal Design is; “The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”. The intent is that anyone … tall, short, young, old, obese, blind, deaf, partially impaired, severely impaired, mentally challenged, etc., can use the space or product without any special adaptation or special knowledge and so that in the future, no matter which of those categories someone fits into, the house will be suitable without major modifications. Flexibility of use is the main idea.

Three doors down from their current home, John and Jane Doe are building a new house they hope will be their last. The one they live in now has many stairs and an elevated living room that already pose problems for many friends and visitors. The Does aren’t ready to retire, but down the road, they don’t want to be forced out the door due to accessibility issues.

The reports are in! An article in Professional Builders Magazine states that, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly 50 percent of Americans say they would rather live in a different community than where they now live. And of those people, most of them are looking toward the suburbs or smaller communities. Apparently, city dwellers were ‘less enthusiastic’ about their environments than those living in suburban, small town or even rural areas.

Hello, and welcome to the Renner Companies’ blog. Here, you can learn who we are, what we do, how we do it, what we’re doing now and some lessons we have learned along the way. We hope that this blog will be a valuable resource for you and your next project. If you have questions or would like to discuss something specific that hasn’t yet been covered here, please feel free to contact us directly. We would be happy to help you in any way possible.