When life changes, space should too: participatory insights into designing for residential flexibility across life stages

ABSTRACT:

This study examines how residents perceive and negotiate flexibility in their residential spaces across various life stages through a participatory workshop involving 80 participants. Using modular blocks, participants reconfigured layouts for scenarios such as shared living, marriage, family growth, work, and ageing. Visual and thematic analyses revealed flexibility priorities, trade-offs, and transformation patterns discussed, showing it peaks in early and mid-life and centres on bedrooms and workspaces as a temporal, user-defined phenomenon of adaptable housing.