On Tuesday this week Blackwood Homes and Care’s long awaited AGM took place in the Dynamic Earth Centre in Edinburgh. The event was focused on innovation and how it could enhance independent living. This was especially reflected in the complete house that was built in less than 24 hours inside Dynamic Earth!

Head of Business Services, Wendy Russell was delighted with the way the day turned out and Blackwood's performance on the night, saying:

"I thought we very much demonstrated in all of the things we had on display – technology, house and other stuff – that we help people live their lives to the full – which is obviously our goal.    I thought that the artists wall was an excellent demonstration of how we want to be open and honest – taking in the feedback of everyone – both good and what we can do to improve – we showed that we always want to be improving what we do."

The Blackwood Concept House

Designed to be beautiful, accessible and affordable, building the house in such a short space of time was a huge undertaking and absolutely everybody got stuck in. It was a monumental effort involving a large crew from L & D Services and several Blackwood staff who worked right through the night. The blood sweat and tears however paid off when shortly before 16:00 on Tuesday the house was finally complete, including all the necessary furniture, technology, appliances and even a small garden.

Blackwood’s Marketing Manager, Colleen Robertson said:

“There is no other word for it, the Concept House and Care expo was simply AWESOME! I knew we had a big task ahead in building a house in a day but I couldn’t believe the outstanding transformation. The monumental effort from L&D Services with our own Blackwood staff was just incredible and I think the resulting structure with the integrated technology exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The exhibition proved that a co-designed accessible home working together with smart technology really can make independent living possible. The technology exists already, we just need to ensure it is totally personalised to the individual.

The whole event was a great success and the feedback from our customers has been amazing. The only downside is that I don’t know how we are ever going to top it!”

Reactions to the house

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with people complimenting the kitchen and bathroom in particular.

The former featured several adaptations to enable people to live independently including an oven with a fold away door so that wheelchair users can easily put dishes in and out, rise and fall surfaces and other little independent living aids as may be useful to some.

The bathroom featured a sleek designed shower chair with adjustable arms and positioning as well as retractable support arms around the toilet and sink. Wendy Russell said:

"Response I had from the visitors that I spoke to was simply outstanding.  People thought the house was functional – but very elegant and pretty – and not at all what you would expect in social housing."

Blackwood tenants Donnie and Edna Copeland were among the first people to see the house and described it as “the future of accessible living” whilst Scott Robb, who sits on one of Blackwood’s scrutiny panels, said the concept house was “a positive towards independent living”. The word “futuristic” was used approvingly by several people who appreciated the bright and modern feel of the house, where accessibility is delivered in a discreet and elegant fashion.

Clever Cogs

Blackwood was keen to showcase all aspects of its drive for innovation and along with the Concept House; the Clever Cogs system was featured. This high tech yet simple to use system is gradually being installed in Blackwood’s care home in Stirling where it gives residents a greater degree of independence and helps staff provide care services. Over the next few years it will gradually be extended further throughout Blackwood.

Managing this project is Blackwood’s Head of Innovation Colin Foskett, who was demonstrating the system to visitors during the exposition. He said;

“The AGM was an overwhelming success and builds upon our strategy of collaboration with our customers, staff and technology partners. Seeing true co-design in action and capturing feedback through the artists’ wall has given us more to work on but also gives us reassurance that we are on the right track.

It was great to see our vision of a beautiful, accessible, technology enabled affordable home design become reality in front of our eyes. Demonstrating the clever cogs technology with the help of our partners, Soft Orange and our staff team from Broom court was really great and again our customers gave great feedback and we have added to our group of people willing to help us test the technology.”

Blackwood Design Awards

The Design Awards have featured before at the AGM but this was the first year that visitors got the chance to play an active part in choosing a winner. Eye-tracking software, a spoon that doesn’t spill and a design for an accessible bus were among the six entries that remained in the competition. These were displayed on six screens and guests were able to cast a vote for their favourite. By voting they also got the chance to win an IPad mini. The four entries with the most votes will be announced shortly on bespoken and will progress to the final round. Congratulations go to Mrs Anne Webster who won the IPad mini.

Almost immediately after all the guests had left, the team began the painful job of tearing the whole house down again only a few hours after its completion. The build-up had begun at about 18:00 on Monday evening and didn’t stop until almost the start of the AGM the next day. And for all the hard work, racing pulses, the dust and the paint, had you taken a stroll through Dynamic Earth late on Tuesday night, you’d never even have known we were there.

Take a look at the video below and see the whole process in accelerated form. Remember to leave a comment at the end.

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