Aging In Place (AIP) Principles - Transitional Spaces
Connecting Environments: How Transitional Spaces Support Aging in Place
TRANSITIONAL SPACES are the connective tissue of a home, encompassing porches, atriums, courtyards, sunrooms, and similar areas that link one room or area to another. These spaces play a crucial role in enhancing a home’s functionality, energy efficiency, and livability, especially for those aging in place. They are essential for:
Natural Ventilation - Transitional spaces enhance natural ventilation by facilitating cross-ventilation, which helps to cool the home passively. Fresh air circulation improves indoor air quality and reduces reliance on air conditioning, making the environment more comfortable and energy-efficient throughout the changing seasons.
Views - These spaces often provide scenic views of the outdoors or other parts of the home, creating a sense of connection and access to nature. This connection can be particularly soothing, offering a pleasant and engaging environment that enhances both indoor and outdoor living experiences.
Natural Light - Large windows, skylights, or open-air designs in transitional spaces flood a home with natural light, reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day. This bright, welcoming atmosphere helps regulate circadian rhythms, improving sleep and overall health. Transitional spaces also help moderate direct sunlight, diffusing it before it reaches interior spaces.
Seasonal Adaptation - Designed to adapt to seasonal changes, transitional spaces provide year-round usability. For instance, sunrooms offer warmth and light in the winter, while shaded porches offer cool retreats in the summer. This adaptability enhances the usability of the home and reduces the negative impacts of feeling confined indoors.
Circulation - Transitional spaces facilitate easy and safe movement throughout the home, particularly important for aging individuals who may have mobility issues. Wide, unobstructed pathways and strategically placed rest areas ensure that moving from one part of the home to another is convenient and safe.
Flexible Programming - These spaces can serve multiple purposes and be easily reconfigured to meet changing needs, functioning as sitting areas, dining spaces, or exercise zones. This flexibility is crucial for aging in place, allowing the home to evolve with the residents' needs over time. It also allows the programmatic uses and activities of the adjacent rooms to spill out into transitional spaces, making both areas more adaptable.
Privacy Gradients - Transitional spaces create natural gradients of privacy within a home, serving as buffers between public and private areas. This design approach ensures that each area maintains its intended level of privacy while feeling connected to the whole house.
“These spaces are important as they make other static spaces relate to each other. These spaces are defined as ‘A world within a world’ or ‘Part as a Whole and Whole as a Part” as they are a part of the whole house, yet can act as a whole individual space altogether. The most important characteristic of this space is its “Flexibility” to change according to the needs of the user.”
Akshaya Murali for Rethinking the Future
Akshaya Murali's perspective highlights the unique role of transitional spaces in home design. These areas are not merely aesthetic elements but vital components that enhance the living experience, particularly for those aging in place. Thoughtfully incorporating these spaces can make homes more livable, adaptable, and sustainable.
Precedent Projects
Westwood Place by ASSEMBLY ARCHITECTURE + BUILD
Westwood Place in West Asheville exemplifies the beautiful use of an atrium as a central nexus and transitional space at the heart of a home. The home’s double-height atrium, strategically designed with vented skylights, enhances natural ventilation and passive cooling, providing a comfortable and energy-efficient living environment. This atrium not only connects the home’s interior with its outdoor surroundings, creating a funnel for views, air, and light, but also weaves together many distinct interior areas, including a dining nook, living room, kitchen, staircase, entry, upstairs rooms, and a hallway. By integrating sustainable materials, thoughtful circulation, and energy-efficient systems, Westwood Place demonstrates how design can foster a harmonious blend of style, sustainability, and practical living.
Photography From ASSEMBLY ARCHITECTURE + BUILD
Photography From ASSEMBLY ARCHITECTURE + BUILD
Photography From ASSEMBLY ARCHITECTURE + BUILD
Brillhart House by Brillhart Architecture
The Brillhart House integrates traditional architectural principles with modern sustainable practices. Inspired by the American Vernacular Dog Trot design (two enclosed structures connected under one roof by a breezeway), the house features 100 feet of uninterrupted glass (50-foot sliding glass walls, front and back) that allows for exceptional cross ventilation and natural light, and extends the conditioned interior to the 800 square feet of covered outdoor transitional space.
The porches promote passive cooling, privacy, and accessibility, creating a harmonious and energy-efficient living environment that adapts to the evolving needs of its residents. Additionally, the layout of the home showcases intuitive and welcoming circulation. There are two layers of hallways, the exterior porch and the hallway just inside the glass. These pathways double as extensions of living areas, allowing the functions and activities of the home to spill out and occupy the transitional spaces as needed.
This blend of vernacular wisdom, accessible circulation, and innovative building techniques makes the Brillhart House a model for sustainable, adaptable, and comfortable living, ideal for aging in place.
Photography from Brillhart Architecture by Claudia Uribe
Photography from Brillhart Architecture by Stefani Fachini
Photography from Brillhart Architecture by Claudia Uribe
Three Generation House by BETA
The Three Generation House creatively integrates inter-generational living by stacking two separate apartments connected through a celebrated central vertical circulation tower. This design provides both private living areas and shared spaces, fostering family interaction and support while maintaining individual autonomy.
“We have dinner together at least once a week, but usually more often,” Mr. van Oppen said. “And we hang out throughout the entire house. So, in the garden, on the roof terrace, in the kitchens.” - Make Room for Grandma: Architects Design Homes for Multiple Generations (NY Times)
The double-height spaces, stacked apartments, and exterior porches allow natural light to permeate the building and support flexible configurations to adapt to changing needs over time. This approach not only anticipates future dependencies of the aging parents but also enhances energy efficiency through passive solar gain and ventilation.
“For this mini-apartment building a concept was devised that would allow the building to accommodate changing spatial demands over time. The bottom apartment has an office and a direct relationship with the garden, making it ideal for a working family with young children. The elderly couple occupies the top apartment with generous views across the cityscape. This apartment has an elevator, level floors and wider door openings in order to accommodate wheelchairs. While it does not resemble an elderly home, all necessary preparations have been made for reduced physical ability.”
Additionally, this design is a textbook example of how transitional spaces can be employed to create a privacy gradient. There is only one entry point on the North facade, reducing street noise and providing a thermal buffer. Alternatively, the South facade is highly porous, featuring bright rooms with high ceilings, generous porches, and views throughout the home. The Three Generation House is a compelling example of how transitional spaces can enhance comfort, accessibility, and familial cohesion in multi-generational living arrangements.
