Back to Our WorkThe Property:
A bungalow with shallow wide garden in Swindon, Wiltshire. Featured on Love Your Home & Garden on ITV broadcast in January 2019. Alan described homeowners Nina & Steve’s home as a closed off box with inaccessible garden.
Watch the full episode on catchup or on the ITV website here.
The Requirement:
The owners Nina & Steve are two wheelchair users with two young children.
“An improved layout to their living space as well as a safe garden to play in that the whole family could access would really help” says Alan.
All the picture windows looked out onto the road at the front, the garden at the back couldn’t even be seen from a wheelchair and had no direct access. The garden was completely inaccessible to wheelchairs.
Alan explains “They haven’t just got a garden they cannot get into, they’ve got a house which still doesn’t quite work and it most certainly is not attached to the garden. This wall is brutal, it’s stopping anybody coming out, the windows are so high it’s even stopping them looking out. Well it’s time this house connected with the garden and was just a happier place.”
The Solution:
Architects George Bradley and Ewald Van Der Straeten planned to create an open plan space with an ‘inside outside’ kitchen peninsula that appears to shoot through the glazing flanked by a pair of Visofold 1000 bi-fold doors at either side offering a choice of inside or outside dining. The bi-fold doors provided the key link to the garden. Designed by Marlin Windows with low threshold for easy wheelchair access.”
Ultra slim Alitherm Heritage Aluminium Windows will magnify the light filled living space.
The Reaction:
“This bungalow was a closed off box, the uneven garden was off limits and inaccessible from the house. Inside the poorly laid out kitchen, living and dining room made life a constant challenge for two adults in wheelchairs and two energetic children.
Now all of that’s changed
Their new garden can be accessed everywhere by the whole household and inside is one light and bright space with plenty of room for wheelchairs and children to move around. Bi fold doors unlock access to the garden for the very first time.”
“This system was specifically designed for a wheelchair access in and outside. It’s so slim and so elegant that it gives us barely any step at all we are talking millimeters.”
“It’s like a dream home”
