A Web-based user-oriented tool for universal kitchen design

Abstract

Economic constraints to the professional design practice limit customized solutions to the very wealthy, and thus most of the kitchens in current development housing projects are still generic. With aging baby boomers and an increasing number of survivors of disability, diversified user needs require professional housing design to accommodate all different individuals, which challenges current design standards. Based on universal design principles, a user-oriented tool for universal home design provides more than a few homebuyers with a chance to take advantage of professional design. Kitchen layout design is taken as the starting point of the home design, since the kitchen has the most complex functional requirements and the most difficult barriers of any room in the house. The tool takes user needs as the design motivation and professional best design practice as the database. For the majority of lay people, this tool makes it possible for them to orient their own kitchen design through a guided searching of proper design strategies according to the user needs and preferences. It highlights the needs of particular users at different ages and physical conditions according to the universal design principles. A direct typological conversion is implemented to link user needs with design strategies. This paper is also the documentation of the universal home design tool project in the House_n Consortium at MIT. The paper takes the project as the main example for stating the possibility and feasibility of the new design methodology.