Perkins Eastman’s Chicago office spent six months exploring a deceptively small accessibility problem: how a door handle could be easier to use as mobility and sensory abilities change with age. The team combined empathy and aging simulations, observation of users and environments, and 3-D-printed prototypes to develop six concepts. The exercise was a design investigation—not a clinical study, product test, code review, or certification program.
Why the door handle became the focus
Doors are unavoidable points of contact between people and buildings, yet their hardware is often treated as a finished specification rather than an experience to be designed. A person must find the handle, understand how it works, apply force, keep hold of it, and coordinate that action with the door’s weight, closer, latch and surrounding space. Changes in strength, dexterity, balance, vision or sensation can make that sequence difficult even when the door itself appears ordinary.
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That overlooked point of contact was the starting point for A Handle On Accessibility: Designing for a Future of Limited Mobility, a Perkins Eastman white paper dated May 8, 2017. Building Design + Construction summarized the work the following day. The Chicago office treated the handle as an opportunity to examine how small architectural elements can either create friction or support independence.
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The demographic argument in the paper is historical and should be read with its date attached. It states: “According to the most recent census data and studies by the US Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 7 people are 65 or older. By 2040, that number is estimated to grow to 1 in 5.” The paper’s footnote attributes the projection to the U.S. Census Bureau’s The Next Four Decades: The Older Population in the United States: 2010 to 2050, published in 2010. “One in five by 2040” is therefore a 2010 Census projection cited in a 2017 design paper, not a current population estimate.
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What the six-month exercise actually did
The project was conducted in-house over six months. Rather than beginning with a product brief or a catalog of hardware, the team began with empathy and aging experiments intended to simulate aspects of limited mobility and sensory deprivation. Those activities gave designers a way to notice how physical constraints and changes in perception could affect an everyday action.
Observations were then considered alongside context and environment. A handle is not used in isolation: its surrounding approach, the door’s movement and the user’s available leverage all influence the task. The team used a user-centered process to turn those observations into concepts, and participants used 3-D printing to fabricate physical prototypes. The prototypes made it possible to discuss form and operation as tangible design questions rather than as abstract sketches.
The stated purpose was twofold: explore a more accessible door handle and develop a more empathetic design process. That distinction matters. The exercise demonstrates a way to investigate a problem; it does not establish that any one concept works for every person or setting.
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The three approaches and six concepts
The concepts were organized by the kind of change they proposed. Two adapted familiar handle forms, two reconsidered what a handle could be, and two questioned whether the conventional handle operation was the right starting point.
| Design approach | Concepts | Question the category asks |
|---|---|---|
| Adapted or evolved traditional forms | Seed; Twist | How might a familiar handle form be adapted rather than discarded? |
| Rethought the handle form | Hand Hold; Loop | What other physical forms could serve as the point of contact? |
| Rethought how the door could be operated | Long; Crank | Could changing the operating action reduce the difficulty of opening a door? |
The sources name the concepts and their categories but do not publish quantitative performance results or detailed specifications for each prototype. Their value in the case study is the range of questions they represent.
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Seed and Twist: evolving the familiar
Seed and Twist belong to the first group, which adapts or evolves traditional forms. This approach is useful when a project must remain legible to people who already understand a conventional handle. Instead of assuming that accessibility requires a completely unfamiliar object, the designer asks which characteristics of a known form can be changed and which should remain recognizable.
For a construction team, that distinction can affect wayfinding, user confidence and the effort required to explain a new fitting. A familiar starting point may also make it easier to compare a proposed change with the hardware already specified, while still opening the design to a different grip or interaction. The paper does not report a measured advantage for either Seed or Twist, so neither should be presented as the better-performing option.
Hand Hold and Loop: rethinking the handle itself
Hand Hold and Loop represent a more fundamental question: the handle does not have to preserve the expected form. Reconsidering the form allows a team to examine how a person contacts, steadies and releases the hardware without treating the standard silhouette as fixed.
This category is especially valuable during early design because it broadens the sketching exercise. A team can compare several ways of presenting a point of contact before details such as finishes, mounting and fabrication are locked in. The names identify prototypes in the exercise; they do not describe retail products, test results or universal solutions.
Long and Crank: rethinking operation
Long and Crank move beyond the object and reconsider how the door is operated. That shift recognizes that difficulty may arise from the required action, not only from the shape held in the hand. Changing the operating method can prompt questions about reach, leverage, sequencing and the relationship between the user and the moving door.
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Because the sources do not provide drawings, force measurements or user-test findings for these concepts, it would be inaccurate to assign a specific mechanical benefit to Long or Crank. Their documented contribution is conceptual: they expand the problem from “design a better handle” to “design a more usable way to open a door.”
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What the prototypes prove—and what they do not
The six concepts show that a small building component can be investigated at several levels: adjust a known form, invent a different form, or change the operation altogether. They also show why physical prototyping is important. A 3-D-printed object can reveal questions about reach, contact, orientation and surrounding clearance that are easy to miss in a drawing.
However, the available accounts do not identify the concepts as commercially available products. They do not report comparative trials, sample sizes, laboratory measurements, certification, code compliance or suitability for every user. The project should therefore be cited as a design exercise and process case study. It is not evidence that a named concept satisfies an accessibility requirement, nor is it a substitute for reviewing the requirements that apply to a specific building and jurisdiction.
Lessons construction and design teams can use
Begin with an overlooked point of contact
Accessibility reviews often concentrate on major routes, room dimensions and visible equipment. The handle exercise suggests adding the small interactions that determine whether a route is practical in daily use. List the points at which occupants must pull, push, turn, grip, release or stabilize themselves, then examine whether the hardware and the surrounding space support those actions.
Use simulations to generate questions, not to impersonate users
Empathy and aging experiments can help designers notice constraints they do not personally experience. They should be treated as prompts for observation and discussion, not as proof that a simulation reproduces an older person’s or disabled person’s experience. Real users bring varied strength, sensation, balance, cognition and preferences that a temporary simulation cannot capture.
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Study the context around the hardware
A handle’s usability depends on more than its profile. Observe the approach to the door, the side from which it is reached, the available space, the door’s resistance and the actions required after the latch releases. Recording those conditions prevents a team from evaluating a fitting as if it were detached from the assembly.
Prototype before the specification is irreversible
The Chicago team’s use of 3-D printing illustrates a practical advantage of low-cost physical models: concepts can be handled, repositioned and criticized before a project commits to production hardware. Prototypes should be labeled as exploratory and reviewed for the questions they can answer. A model can help compare reach or contact points, but it cannot by itself establish durability, fire performance, security or compliance.
Keep the design space broad at first
The three-category structure prevents premature commitment to one answer. A team that considers only modified conventional levers may never ask whether the operating action is the real barrier. Conversely, a team that pursues an entirely new form may overlook the value of familiarity. Keeping all three approaches in view allows the eventual choice to reflect the building, users and constraints rather than a single design preference.
Document the reasoning
Record the observed situation, the constraint being addressed, the concept change and the question the prototype is meant to answer. This creates a traceable basis for later decisions and makes it easier to distinguish an observed need from an assumption. It also prevents a compelling prototype image from being mistaken for evidence of performance.
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- Map the interaction. Describe how occupants approach, grasp, operate and release each door in the route being studied.
- Identify varied users and conditions. Consider people with different mobility, strength, sensation and balance, along with doors used while carrying objects or moving through busy areas.
- Run structured observation. Use carefully designed simulations where appropriate, but pair them with input from people who have relevant lived experience.
- Separate the problem levels. Ask whether the issue is the familiar form, the handle form itself, the operating action, or the surrounding door assembly.
- Generate concepts in all three directions. Adapt a known form, rethink the form, and rethink the operation before narrowing the options.
- Build representative models. Use 3-D printing or another rapid method to make concepts that can be handled and compared at realistic scale.
- Evaluate against explicit criteria. Define the user action being examined and record observations consistently; do not convert informal impressions into unsupported performance claims.
- Verify project requirements separately. Check the applicable accessibility, life-safety, hardware, security and durability requirements with the project’s qualified professionals before specifying or installing a product.
How to discuss door-lever products responsibly
A retail door lever may be a relevant hardware category when a project is considering easier operation, but the existence of a lever does not prove that it meets a particular accessibility standard. Fit, mounting height, clearances, operating force, door closer settings and the requirements of the local authority still need to be reviewed for the actual installation.
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Likewise, the six Perkins Eastman names should not be used as product recommendations. The sources do not establish a manufacturer, retail availability, certification or test ranking for Seed, Twist, Hand Hold, Loop, Long or Crank. Treat them as prompts for a design conversation, not as items to order.
The authors’ broader design argument
Building Design + Construction attributes the following statement to Michael Schur and Joshua Bergman of Perkins Eastman’s Chicago office: “As the U.S. population continues to age,” write Schur and Bergman, “[we as designers] have the opportunity to advance design through the re-working of overlooked elements of everyday life … The range and variety of the final designs emphasize the power of recognizing others’ needs…these explorations illustrate that the value of what we design ultimately lies in how well we understand the end-user and how well we are able to design for them.”
The quotation captures why the exercise remains useful beyond door hardware. Its central claim is about method: attentive observation can expose opportunities in ordinary components, and a variety of prototypes can make those opportunities visible to a project team.
How to cite the case study accurately
Use the dates and scope when describing the work. Perkins Eastman’s primary paper is dated May 8, 2017; the Building Design + Construction account is dated May 9, 2017. Call it a six-month, in-house Chicago design exercise that used empathy and aging simulations, user-centered analysis and 3-D-printed prototypes. Identify the six concepts as prototypes grouped into three approaches.
Avoid turning the paper’s 2010 Census projection into a current demographic fact, and avoid repeating the article’s interpretation about nearly a quarter of the population as if it were a separately sourced disability-prevalence statistic. Most importantly, do not describe the concepts as tested, certified, code-compliant or commercially available when the published accounts do not establish those facts.
Why this small hardware study still matters
The project’s enduring contribution is not a finished handle. It is a disciplined way to look at a familiar building element. By moving from simulated constraints to observations, from observations to several design directions, and from directions to physical prototypes, the team made accessibility a question of everyday interaction rather than a late-stage checklist item.
For architects, builders and owners, that approach offers a practical reminder: the details people touch can determine whether a building feels usable. Studying those details early, testing ideas honestly and separating design exploration from compliance evidence can lead to better decisions without overstating what a prototype has achieved.
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