Utilising space in sheltered housing or fitting a quart into a pint pot: perspectives of architects and older people

The author, using textual analysis of architectsʹ professional discourse and interviews with older people, examines their different perspectives on space utilisation in sheltered housing. Both designers and older people approach this matter by way of commonsense usages of home as a physical location and as a location in space. The differences between these individuals are explicated in terms of Schutzʹs notion of anonymous typifications. It is shown that architectural design briefs involve making predictions about the future lives of residents of sheltered housing. This results in a range of anonymous typifications informing architectsʹ views on space utilisation. By contrast, when older people talk about their future lives in sheltered housing and space utilisation they rely upon features of their individual biographies: matters from which architects are inevitably excluded.