Britta and Micha's apartment shows that barrier-free living does not have to mean hospital facilities. The two live with their young daughter Karlotta in a rented apartment in the middle of Tübingen.
Micha is in a wheelchair; he has been paraplegic since a swimming accident in 2016 and also has limited use of his hands. Independence is quality of life for him, so the two of them adapted the apartment so that he can do almost everything on his own. And it was important to them that the home not look like a care facility.
When Micha was discharged after a year in hospital and rehab, he couldn't go back to his shared apartment. Britta and Micha's dream of moving into an inclusive shared apartment turned out to be difficult to realize, because the housing market doesn't offer much for people with disabilities either. Luckily, they met a wheelchair user who was about to move and they were able to take over his 3-room apartment.
An absolute stroke of luck, because barrier-free living is not the same as wheelchair-accessible living. Every threshold, every grip height can be an obstacle in everyday life. Ramps, height-adjustable work surfaces, tilting mirrors and sliding doors make everyday life easier. But they often cost a lot of money. Even in this apartment planned as barrier-free, not everything can be found and not everything is perfect. That's where good ideas help, like the sliding board. Micha (engineer) and Britta (graphic designer) have redesigned the rented apartment for themselves so that Micha really has hardly any obstacles - and without investing a fortune.
Britta is a big fan of "universal design" - the idea of making things simple and usable by as many people as possible. It follows the principles that objects, systems and processes in general can be used by people with very different abilities, that they can be used flexibly (e.g. right-handed/left-handed, but also by image, speech or buttons), that the use is simple and intuitive, without risks and with minimal physical effort. In addition, sufficient space for use is taken into account.
Britta thinks all these things are useful and helpful in everyday life even for people who walk or are not physically impaired. You bump into each other less, have more space and fewer tripping hazards. This is also practical for little daughter Karlotta. Together they are now their own little shared apartment and master the challenges of everyday life like any other family with two working parents and a small child.
A film by Bettina von Bonin (editor), Frederik Dietz (camera), Johannes Bock (sound) and Marcella Krings (editing).
00:00 Barrier-free living
00:31 Kitchen
04:05 Micha's accident
04:33 Dining table & couch
05:19 Universal design
06:12 Bathroom
07:32 Bedroom
10:27 Wardrobe
11:00 Balcony
3 июл 2024
