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Living Forum's advisor, Setha Leakhena and Junior Research Fellow, Prak Norak was published in Cambodianess on November 26th, 2024.
Check out the original article here, and read it below.
Shophouses have lined Phnom Penh’s streets since the early days of the city. The style of these ubiquitous row houses originated with the Chinese merchant house. This type of house prevailed through the colonial era and the Sangkum Reas Niyum and are still built today with each era creating slight variations on the architectural form.
Even today, almost every new borey development still includes at least one row of shophouses. You’ll easily spot these structures if you visit Cambodian cities, from Phnom Penh to Battambang, to Kratie, to Kampot, or you might even be living in one of these homes yourself.
If you’re living in one or just imagine living in one, imagine that your aging relatives come to stay over your house for a few days. Maybe your visiting grandfather is in his 80s and his eyesight is not as good as yours, he struggles through the dark corridor of the home to the bathroom. When it’s time for dinner, you have to guide him to the dinner table avoiding the bumps of bookshelves and tables throughout your home. At night, when he has to go to the toilet, you have to wake up with him so you can guide him.
This scenario is not hard to imagine given the way most shophouses are structured. These homes are often very dark even during the day and come with other drawbacks as well, such as poor ventilation and air-flow.
Yet it is possible to rethink and redesign these houses to be more accessible and welcoming for our aging parents, for our relatives with disabilities, and even for pregnant family members.
As much as 16 percent of the world’s population has some form of disability. Given Cambodia’s history and context, many experts assume that our population has a similar rate of physical difference or impairment. It is important to consider that among this number, there could be people you know and love, or it could be you.
For our shophouses to be accessible by all, including those of us with disabilities, we should aim, first, to create an easy-access entryway. Second, is a convenient hallway, for a clear route within the home. Third, are the bathroom and ground floor bedroom for our physically impaired family members. Moreover, the use of lighting and sound can play a role in making the home accessible for all. Lastly, is the consideration for furnishing choices and fittings that help our disabled family members to navigate the home easily.
An Inclusive Entrance
What greets all of us when we enter our home is the entryway. Before we lounge in the living room or eat a meal, we must pass this threshold. So it goes without saying that this important gateway must provide safe and easy access for all.
For our physically impaired family members who might even be using a wheelchair, walker, or cane to move about, the entryway should have a gentle slope leading up to the interior of the home. It’s important that a ramp like this always comes with handrails and a non-slip surface. The ramp slope angle should be about a 1 to 12 ratio. This means that for a step up that is 10cm tall, the ramp should be 120cm long. A ramp will not only help those in wheelchairs but anyone with difficulties walking if we have stairs leading to our door. Our visually impaired guests and family will also appreciate this barrier-free feature when they visit.
The doorway should also be wide enough for wheelchairs to pass through. It should have a minimum width of 80cm or ideally 90cm. The door handle should ideally be a lever handle so that family members with weak hand strength can twist it without using grabbing force. Also if the doorway is narrow, consider using a sliding door instead.
Navigable Hallways
Within the interior of our elongated shophouses, the hallway is typically the only route and space for moving along the length of the building. To make this space as accessible as possible we want to have a flooring design that will not cause hazards for people with disabilities and for older adults. The path should include features that help family members with difficulties seeing, hearing, or walking while also staying clear of clutter.
For family members who use wheelchairs, rugs and thick carpeting can make it difficult for them. So avoid those and make sure the flooring material is non-slip. For family members who can’t see well, flooring can be a different color from area to area so they can know which part of the house they are in.
There are, however, some misconceptions that blind people see only pitch black which is not true. The majority of visual impairments do allow some minor vision. Hence the reason why contrast of material colors or texture can be helpful.
Another feature that could help both our visually and physically impaired family members is a handrail along the corridor. Families who are interested in this feature should install the handrail on both sides of the hallway if possible. Our grandparents or anyone who may have difficulties walking can grab onto these to guide them along the hallway, or to prevent themselves from falling. Family members with difficulties seeing may also use the handrail as a guiding tool by having texture on the railing to signify which part of the house they are in.
In addition to this, families might install an LED strip light along the corridor to guide family members with visual impairment.
Our elongated shophouses can also have many blind spots that mean people with hearing impairments cannot see who’s coming around corners. So shophouse residents might consider creating chamfered corners in the corridor so that family members with difficulties hearing can navigate corners more easily.
Alternatively, we can add a buffer for a sharp corner, such as a planter or seating. This is going to make someone coming around a corner make a detour around the buffer and see who’s on the other side. At the very least, we can have a reflective material or a thin mirror on the wall that tells our family members of someone’s presence around the corner and prevent collisions.
Lastly, the stairs of a shophouse, which can be daunting to older adults or people with mobility challenges, should have additional built-in seats between flights for a quick rest, even a small stool will suffice. As well as having handrails on both sides. Your aging parents and grandparents will thank you for considering their needs.
Bedrooms and bathrooms we can easily access
A fully accessible bedroom and bathroom are an absolute necessity for those who live in shophouses. We need to consider this room first even if we don’t have an elderly person or a family member with a disability living with us or visiting us. It’s not uncommon for even people who have never experienced a mobility challenge to go through a temporary disability such as an accident or even a pregnancy. In moments where we are experiencing even temporary impairment we may not be able to go up a flight of stairs to lie down. Having a room to rest on the ground floor will help with our recovery.
Ideally shophouse owners should plan or replan a room of a minimum of 9 square meters to accommodate a small bed with a clear space of 1.5 meters radius for free movement with or without a wheelchair.
It’s best if this room is near the living room, dining, and kitchen areas, as it often is. This will shorten the travel time to grab something to eat, relax with other family members, or to go outdoors for some fresh air. At the same time, there should be some windows or translucent glass to monitor elderly or disabled family members in case of emergency.
This accessible bedroom should ideally have an en-suite bathroom, making sure that the access door is as wide as 80cm - 90cm or more for wheelchair access. It should also be barrier-free, and preferably a sliding door.
If this is not possible, arrange the room next to the general bathroom. To be fully accessible, the ground floor bathroom should have a wheelchair-friendly toilet seat with grab bars and free movement space of 1.5m for wheelchairs. The sink should have a height of 70cm - 75cm for a wheelchair to go under.
While for non-wheelchair features, the shower should be without steps to avoid tripping. The flooring should be non-slip or have a non-slipcover with seating in the shower for our grandparents or family members with disabilities to wash stress-free.
Furnishing and Fitting
To make our spaces more accessible we should choose tables, seating, and other features that are easy for disabled or elderly family members to use.
In the kitchen, we should store items in the lower cabinet if possible so that they can be accessed for those who use wheelchairs. The height of the cabinets should be 80cm maximum. Also strip lighting should be deployed along cabinets’ edges to guide visually impaired family members.
It’s best to arrange appliances closer to the sink and counters for easier performance in the kitchen. The sink, again, should have a height of 70-75cm for a wheelchair user to access. The same should apply to the dining table. Or you can have a table with adjustable height.
For those who have family members who navigate spaces with difficulty, it’s best to consider tables or furniture which have rounded or soft edges to avoid injury.
Conclusion
While most of us more or less dwell in these ubiquitous shophouses, its limitations can be exploited to our advantage with adaptive renovation. As we and our family continue to age, this shophouse will need to adapt to our ages and vulnerability rather than the opposite.
Although this is not a comprehensive guide, home dwellers and designers can take this as a basis for change and improvement. It can also be changed according to different contexts. Such was the case with my grandmother who is bedridden. A built-in toilet was then attached to her bed for her convenience.
A house should always adapt to its users. Not only is it a shelter but a ‘home’.
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