ABSTRACT
The final section of the book is a guide to how one might
design for flexibility, summarising the arguments made
in the previous two chapters. Because housing design is
solution or approach. Analysis of previous flexible hous-
ing schemes suggests that a one-fit solution will not
meet the very different needs and approaches of a wide
variety of clients and designers. Indeed, it may be argued
that some previous approaches to flexible housing design
have fallen on the sword of their own dogmatism. Or to
put it another way, some flexible housing design is inflex-
ible in its attitude, which means it may work in one context
but is difficult to transfer to another. This section there-
fore offers a range of strategies and tactics and leaves it
to the designer to choose the ones that are most appropri-
Flexibility in housing can work either prior to occupation by
the residents, or post-occupation, or both. In the former,
flexible housing design allows future residents to have
some say over the layout and /or look of their home. Thus
the use of non-loadbearing internal partitions might give a
variety of possible layouts from which future tenants could
choose, or else the use of modern methods of construc-
tion can allow residents to choose the way that their house
looks. Post-occupation flexibility refers to the way that the
design and construction of the housing allows residents
and housing managers to make adaptations over time.
