Building bathrooms better

The best nursing homes and care facilities are designed to support both the physical and emotional needs of their residents, as well as making life easier for their staff. By providing pleasant and comfortable environments that seek to avoid the clinical aesthetic associated with conventional healthcare settings, these facilities are able to help residents relax and feel more at home.

Bathrooms designed for use by care home residents are often equipped from the outset to meet barrier-free standards for accessibility. Villeroy & Boch’s ViCare collection includes ergonomic products such as support handles, wall-mounted shower seats and basins with gripping points that enable free and unassisted movement for elderly or disabled users.

The collection merges attractive, ergonomic design with practical features that benefit care home staff as well as residents. To make cleaning quicker and more straightforward, for example, the sanitary ware is designed with smooth surfaces, minimal joints and a single-point fastening system for fixing products to the wall.

Villeroy & Boch works with architects and interior designers to optimise the layout and features of bathrooms in care settings. It offers resources outlining good practice and its products are certified to the DIN 18040 standard for accessibility. Equipment such as the ViConnect fixing elements for handles can be installed during the initial fit out to make any future upgrades faster and more cost efficient.

The use of products such as those from the ViCare range can also benefit nursing staff by allowing residents greater autonomy. This reduces demands on their time and frees them up to focus on other tasks. Perhaps most importantly, the best barrier-free bathrooms help care home residents feel more independent and happier, which should always remain the key objective when designing these spaces.

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