Impact of flexible building design on resident and user wellbeing

My doctoral research examined if flexible housing designs and making changes to homes can positively support our wellbeing in it. Poor and unsuitable housing is an important socioeconomic determinant of our health. Being able to use the house in a way that supports our needs, and make changes to it if unsuitable, has various health, financial and psychosocial benefits. However, the extent to which residents can exert this sense of control over their homes can be low in the current UK homes as they are predominantly small, largely inaccessible and hard to retrofit and adapt, and yet expected to dominate the housing stock till 2050. This poses a serious challenge for our homes in meeting our increasing and changing demands, as we spend more time in it living, working and ageing, especially post the covid-19 pandemic. In my thesis, I adapted an interdisciplinary approach combining psychological frameworks with architectural design insights to examine if flexible features and making changes to home can support our wellbeing in it. I found that having a variety of rooms at home, and which are multifunctional and easily modifiable are important for wellbeing. But is dependent on whether residents can easily use these features and make different types of changes to them such as decorations, personalisation, furniture layout and structural changes and maintenance. These behaviours can be dependent on multiple factors and influences, but on an individual level, I found that having the ability (knowledge, skills, awareness of how to) and the drive/need to make these changes to homes play an important role in it. These findings have important implications for new housing design and resident agency and empowerment in UK housing which is explored in this Fellowship. There has been an increasing need for including residents in the decisions of housing design and building more flexible, resilient and futureproofed homes to support the increase in residential mobility and an ageing population. In this fellowship, I will explore the extent to which these findings can be applied to the design of new housing projects, challenges and restrictions (policy and planning) to adapting existing homes, and various pathways to empower residents in modifying their homes despite the restrictions. Working with partners and networks, I will disseminate key findings with residents and housing professionals through public events, knowledge exchange workshops, and online to ensure that the societal and industry impacts of my doctoral research are maximised.