inclusive design

After yet another dry spring in large parts of the UK, Stuart Reynolds, UK Marketing & Product Management Director at AKW - a leading provider of accessible bathrooms and kitchens – discusses why housing associations should care about water efficient bathrooms and how to achieve them easily and stylishly.

A package of specialist products from Altro has helped deliver a high-performance ‘home from home’ refurb at a leading dementia-care home in Middlesex.

The Woodlands Residential Care Home in Ickenham is a family owned and run business providing dementia, respite and day care in a comfortable and secure environment. When the team wanted to expand and upgrade its facilities, they knew careful planning and design would be crucial, as would working with a range of products designed for the specific challenges dementia care environments can bring.

AKW, one of the UK’s leading providers of accessible showering and kitchen solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of the company’s Baths Collection brochure, which offers a bathroom solution for everyone, no matter the budget requirements. Comprising everything needed to fit a bathroom without mobility requirements, the products have been chosen to suit a variety of budgets and user experiences, making the range ideal for both social and private housing installations. 

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), by 2030, one in five people in the UK will be aged 65 or over, up from one in six in 2018.

This highlights the increasing need for homes that cater to a variety of requirements, particularly in terms of mobility aids, enhanced safety features, and adaptable spaces.

With inclusive living becoming an increasingly important aspect of bathroom design, creating shower systems that provide a superb showering experience while giving people the independence they want is crucial. Mira Showers has designed the Mira Select Flex mixer shower to enable more confident independent showering while looking at home in any family bathroom.

For many social tenants, the idea of a wet room is far from a luxury, but a necessity, however some landlords express concern at the idea of installing wet rooms on upper floors. Here, Stuart Reynolds, UK Marketing & Product Management Director at AKW, a leading provider of inclusive solutions, discusses how wet rooms are not just for downstairs installs and how they can be specified – with confidence - upstairs too.

There is a backlog in DFG and social landlord funded bathroom adaptations, however, thanks to the introduction of AKW’s new standalone cubicle, safe showering and toileting can be achieved more quickly than a traditional wet room or level access solution. Here Stuart Reynolds, Head of Product and Marketing at AKW, a leading provider of bathroom accessibility solutions, discusses why the stylish Onyx Care Pod has been developed and how it helps social landlords meet tenants showering and toileting needs more quickly and flexibly.