Imagined bodies: Architects and their constructions of later life

TY - JOUR

T1 - Imagined bodies

T2 - Architects and their constructions of later life

AU - Buse, Christina

AU - Nettleton, Sarah Joan

AU - Martin, Daryl

AU - Twigg, Julia

N1 - © Cambridge University Press 2016.

PY - 2017/8/1

Y1 - 2017/8/1

N2 - This article comprises a sociological analysis of how architects imagine the ageing body when designing residential care homes for later life and the extent to which they engage empathetically with users. Drawing on interviews with architectural professionals based in the United Kingdom, we offer insight into the ways in which architects envisage the bodies of those who they anticipate will populate their buildings. Deploying the notions of 'body work' and 'the body multiple', our analysis reveals how architects imagined a variety of bodies in nuanced ways. These imagined bodies emerge as they talked through the practicalities of the design process. Moreover, their conceptions of bodies were also permeated by prevailing ideologies of caring: Although we found that they sought to resist dominant discourses of ageing, they nevertheless reproduced these discourses. Architects' constructions of bodies are complicated by the collaborative nature of the design process, where we find an incessant juggling between the competing demands of multiple stakeholders, each of whom anticipate other imagined bodies and seek to shape the design of buildings to meet their requirements. Our findings extend a nascent sociological literature on architecture and social care by revealing how architects participate in the shaping of care for later life as 'body workers', but also how their empathic aspirations can be muted by other imperatives driving the marketisation of care.

AB - This article comprises a sociological analysis of how architects imagine the ageing body when designing residential care homes for later life and the extent to which they engage empathetically with users. Drawing on interviews with architectural professionals based in the United Kingdom, we offer insight into the ways in which architects envisage the bodies of those who they anticipate will populate their buildings. Deploying the notions of 'body work' and 'the body multiple', our analysis reveals how architects imagined a variety of bodies in nuanced ways. These imagined bodies emerge as they talked through the practicalities of the design process. Moreover, their conceptions of bodies were also permeated by prevailing ideologies of caring: Although we found that they sought to resist dominant discourses of ageing, they nevertheless reproduced these discourses. Architects' constructions of bodies are complicated by the collaborative nature of the design process, where we find an incessant juggling between the competing demands of multiple stakeholders, each of whom anticipate other imagined bodies and seek to shape the design of buildings to meet their requirements. Our findings extend a nascent sociological literature on architecture and social care by revealing how architects participate in the shaping of care for later life as 'body workers', but also how their empathic aspirations can be muted by other imperatives driving the marketisation of care.

KW - Architects

KW - body work

KW - imagined bodies

KW - later life

KW - residential care home design

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84969899110&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0144686X16000362

DO - 10.1017/S0144686X16000362

M3 - Article

SN - 0144-686X

VL - 37

SP - 1435

EP - 1457

JO - Ageing and Society

JF - Ageing and Society

IS - 7

ER -