Universal housing design means designing Australian homes to meet the changing access needs of home occupants across their lifetime. A universally designed home seeks to enhance the quality of life for all occupants at all stages of their life by including more accessible friendly design features.

Features of a universal designed house

Features aim to make homes easier to live in for all occupants including: people with a disability, ageing Australians, people with temporary injuries, and families with young children.

Some of the features may include:

• direct access into a home
• wide front doors
• wide corridors
• main facilities on the ground level
• low window sills.

A universally designed home should:

• be easy to enter
• be easy to move in and around
• be capable of easy and cost-effective adaptation
• be designed to anticipate and respond to the changing needs of home occupants.

National dialogue on universal design

The National Dialogue on Universal Housing Design in late 2009 brought together representatives from all levels of government, and key stakeholder groups from the ageing, disability and community support sectors and the residential building and property industry.

The national collaborators developed a voluntary Liveable Housing Design Guideline and set an aspirational target that by 2020 all new homes will be built to disability friendly standards that will also meet the needs of occupants as they age.

Queensland’s response

The Universal Housing Design Group (UHDG) was formed to progress the national discussion on universal housing design in Queensland. This taskforce is a sub group of Queensland’s Building Industry Consultative Group (BICG).

Building Codes Queensland heads the group to raise awareness of the voluntary guidelines and to investigate the extent to which universal design features are being taken up in new houses in Queensland.

Members of the advisory group include:

• Building Codes Queensland
• Council on the Ageing Queensland
• Department of Communities
• Housing Industry Association
• Property Council of Australia (Queensland division)
• Queensland Action on Universal Housing Design
• Queensland Council of Social Services Incorporated
• Queensland Master Builders Association
• Royal Australian Institute of Architects
• Urban Development Institute of Australia
• Brisbane Housing Company
• Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland
• Spinal Injuries Association
• Griffith University
• Real Estate Institute of Queensland
• Local Government Association of Queensland.

Objectives of the Universal Housing Design Group

• to raise awareness of the voluntary guidelines and the benefits of Universal Housing Design
• to monitor the uptake of universal design features in Queensland
• to provide regular reports for the state government on Queensland’s industry progress on meeting its voluntary goals.

Meetings

The taskforce aims to meet four times per year. The first meeting and second were held in Brisbane on 16 December 2010 and 14 April 2011.

Minutes	Type and size
Meeting 1	115 KB
Meeting 2	128 KB