British architecture studio Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt has completed a home in Hampshire that aims to make life easier for a wheelchair user, while not compromising on design quality.
Each room at Claywood is designed to be accessible and functional for retired Joe Wright, who became a wheelchair user after suffering a spinal cord injury.
Rather than creating a building that resembles the home of a disabled person, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt produced a family home that embraces contemporary architecture.
The building has a sculptural form consisting of two volumes: a modular ground floor with pale textured brick walls and a black wood-clad first floor above the ends of the block below.
“A key part of the brief was designing a house that didn’t seem to be clearly designed for wheelchairs,” Dominic Gaunt, one of the studio’s founders, told Dezeen.
Clywood is the home of Joe and her husband, David Wright, as well as their three older children.
The couple decided to build the house after realizing that their previous home couldn’t be adapted to meet their needs – there would always be areas outside Joe’s limits – and failed to find a suitable property for sale.
Instead, they cut down part of their former home’s extensive grounds to create a new plot.
“Joe was adamant that she had to sleep upstairs on the same floor with her family,” Gaunt told Dezen.
“It has been distressing for her to be unable to see her children’s bedrooms for eight years, and not to be able to go to them when they were unwell.”
The design of the building is organized over two floors, which is loosely organized into three zones.
On the ground floor, the living spaces are clustered together at the south end of the building, with a glass wall allowing for the expansion of outside dining.
The north end accommodates specialist facilities including a swimming pool and treatment room.
The first floor is dedicated to the bedrooms. There are five in total, plus a small home office.
There is also a separate annex located at the entrance to the site, which can be used by the future caregiver.
Throughout the home, the home carefully integrates a number of accessible features such as level thresholds, extra-wide hallways, elevator access, and specialized furniture.
Much of the architecture was planned to work in both sitting and standing positions.
Glazing throughout the house includes floor-to-ceiling windows and lower windows, while the cantilevered master bedroom is designed to give the atmosphere an uninterrupted view of the landscape for times when it’s bed-bound.
“The master bedroom touches the tree canopy into the woods behind and gives a sense of hanging, especially when the sliding doors open,” Gaunt said.
The same approach extends to the furnishings and fixtures, which were designed with the help of an accessibility consultant.
The oven and washing machine have been raised so Jo can reach them, the worktops are set at two different heights, the clothes drying rack is connected to a pulley system, and the dining table is custom built at a non-standard height.
“While the house includes a lot of specialized elements and automation, a lot of the design was simply about ensuring things are in the right places and at the right heights,” Gaunt explained.
To help the architects understand the level of detail required, Joe Air Chamberlain Gaunt introduced one of her wheelchairs in the early stages of the project, helping them understand some of her everyday frustrations.
According to Gaunt, the experience has proven so eye-catching that the company plans to take an accessible approach to other projects in the future.
“It has been a really helpful experience for us and we are more aware of the overall design than we have been in all of our work, regardless of rating,” he said.
“He is now at the forefront of our work and guiding early design decisions.”
Other modern homes designed for accessibility include House for Theo and Oskar in nearby Surrey, Gap Cove House in Massachusetts, USA, and Glass Trefoil House in Vermont, USA.
Photography by Jim Stevenson.