Designing for Inclusivity

Aug 31

Strategies for Universal Washrooms and Change Rooms in Community and Recreation Facilities

By: HCMA Architecture + Design

The social impact resulting from all aspects of architecture must be taken into consideration for any work. HCMA created the Designing for Inclusivity guide to help fill a gap in design knowledge around issues relating to universal washroom and change rooms in community and recreation facilities.

It is intended to be a resource for designers, municipal staff, facility planners, building operators and managers, and anyone interested in understanding more about this topic and why they are increasingly part of evolving best practice considerations across project and building types.

This document discusses how universal washrooms and change rooms promote:

Inclusivity for people with disabilities

Inclusivity for families
Inclusivity for transgender and non-binary people
Increased privacy and safety
Increased efficiency
Forward-thinking design

The objectives of this document are to provide context, identify benefits and challenges, and share design strategies that promote inclusivity for a wide variety of users. It shares a variety of critical background and information all in one place, including building regulations, human rights legislation, terminology and statistics on transgender and non-binary inclusion, typologies and precedents, and additional resources.

There have been many learnings from this current pandemic. One of them has been confirmation of the critical importance of inclusion and diversity. It is critical that we intentionally find was to ensure that all members of society are supported in our public spaces and buildings.

Details

Budget: For new construction we don’t believe that there is any cost premium for thinking and designing inclusively. It is a mindset and the earlier you embrace it on a project the easier it is to integrate. For retrofit projects, it would be same as any other retrofit cost. For instance, if you are renovating a space, integrating with an inclusive mindset would have the same cost as a conventional project.