Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I'm in a wheelchair. Brand new houses built with stairs make me sad. I've often thought I'd love to work with an architect to design accessible houses: it's not just for me, anyone with limited mobility or energy would benefit.


This is basically a mobile home, which has no foundation. As such, there is nothing in the design which is not easily re-built to your spec. The design is inherently modular. When you are dealing with a 200sq ft living space, its best to have it tailored to your own needs, and not a random or lowest common-denominator-based spec. The common areas, however take on more importance in a community or non-remote setting ans thus are the relevant areas to consider from an architecture perspective.


Hey thanks, that's good to know.


"Tailored to your needs"

"Not a random or lowest-common-denominator-based spec"

So you want it to cost what a 1,200 sqft building would cost, but you want to spend it on architects and custom builders instead of cheap efficient standardized parts & designs.

A wheelchair ramp, sure I guess... but the general principle of housing for most of us can't be "Find a way to occupy the unemployed architecture majors of the world".


No, the house in the article was built for $11,000 dollars. That's the cost of provisioning about 5 square feet of London real estate. You're mis-reading be-tween the lines, by a couple orders of magnitude.


Yes I agree. A family member is in a wheelchair/power chair and where I live, it's nearly impossible to find single level homes unless you build new. There home was recently modified with a $16,000 elevator and honestly it's barely accessible. A power chair just makes it into the elevator and there's absolutely no room to turn inside the lift.

I wish there was more interest in accessible vehicles as well. Outside of the Kenguru which can't go up hills and is limited to 25MPH (since it's NEV) there aren't many other options which allows a power chair user to drive (without transferring).


For powered (and unpowered chairs) you're looking at a modified van - I'm sorry I can't remember the company that builds them right now.

Please make sure the chair can be anchored correctly and is certified for use in a vehicle.


You don't have any contact details in your profile but feel free to contact me about this - I think you're just missing the right search keywords (for the vehicles)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: