Accessibility in Housing Design: A Critical Review of Prefabricated Housing, Tirana Albania

Abstract

The main aim of the present research is to advance the state of the art of the accessibility in housing design. It addresses how to include the category of disabled people in the design process. In addition, the research includes the accessibility issues at different stages or completely accessible with different functions. The paper explores the key concepts via an in-depth theoretical background towards a barrier-free building design. Statistical evidences of the disabled people in Albania are illustrated. As case study, prefabricated buildings adopted in the early ’80 s are used to illustrate the accessibility limitations in housing design and to explore the modularity of the structure and the corresponding plan layouts. The results showed that prefabricated housing design is rather limited to accessibility, adaptability and universal design strategies.