Apartment types Standard vs Senior Citizen

Apartment types vary in accordance with the purpose they are built for. While many follow a standard type, others are built more for senior citizens. Most of the modern apartments are essentially being designed for young adults in mind, they could be recent college grads or start-up employees. However, the demographics suggests that there are more senior citizens around the urban areas as there ever were. Therefore, there is now a need to start working on how your standard apartment types could be modified to inhabit senior citizens. For that, we will launch into a sort of comparison between the standard apartment types and the ones designed for senior citizens. 

Standard Types of Apartments

The standard types of apartments are usually characterized by large spaces and separation between different rooms. For instance, the duplex apartments allow for complete separation between the bedrooms and only join the two floors by means of an interior staircase. Standard apartment types include a classic 6 apartment which has a living room, two full bedrooms, formal dining room, a smaller bedroom, a separate kitchen and two full bathrooms. There is also a convertible apartment which has a really long space which could be segmented with a temporary pressurized wall.  A corporate apartment is also referred to as a standard apartment type where you have a fully furnished unit, however, it is designed for business personnel who need an alternative to hotel accommodation. Other standard apartment types include, penthouse apartments, loft apartments, luxury apartments, shotgun apartments, railroad apartments, and triplex. The standard apartment types also vary as per the sizes. There is a one –room apartment which is a combined space for bedroom, living area, kitchenette, with a separate space for bathroom. 

Now the common thread that runs through all the above mentioned types of standard apartment is that they are designed for convenience of the young and healthy with their separate and large spaces. Especially with the duplex and triplex, you cannot ensure safety for the elderly when they need to move around. 

Senior Citizen Apartments

For the elderly, there are apartments which are called senior citizen apartments. Now these are the ones designed with affording maximum convenience to the elderlies’ movement. There is often an option to convert your standard apartments into senior citizen ones by following some the latter’s characteristics. 

Strictly senior apartments are age-restricted. Some call for the age to be above 55 some take the limit up to 62. They are usually priced at below the market rates, except for the luxury senior apartments. Senior citizen apartments are commonly considered to be affordable as they are not tagged with unnecessary spaces and furniture. Especially designed senior citizen apartments include various facilities, however, they vary from location to location. The amenities include elevators, emergency call systems, walk-in and lighted closets, walking paths, gated or controlled access, in-unit washers and dryers etc. 

Senior apartments differ from independent living communities in that that the later provide meals and housekeeping within the rent. Senior citizen apartments also come with the added benefits of planned activities and security. Planned activities include board games, arts and craft, movie nights, card game parties and exercise classes. The security measures include emergency alert systems and cameras. 

The standard apartments could be enhanced to be suitable to senior citizens by adding slip-prevention flooring and well-placed grab bars in the washroom. The kitchen design is also supposed to be different for senior citizen as they have reduced dexterity. For instance, the pantry should be styles with open selves or rollout trays to increase the accessibility. You could also increase the visibility of the staircases by using contrast strips on them.