Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 139). / The particular subject of this thesis is Housing for the Elderly. The intention is to propose an architecture which springs from an alternative attitude towards housing the elderly ... an attitude which purports that multiplicity and exchange are the elements crucial to one's well-being; in contrast to the current paradigm within the world of planning for the elderly ... one of segregation, classification and singularity. With a little license, I call this a research and design thesis, as it has been difficult to define. As a 'research' paper, it entails the use of a particular method of selecting, understanding, and (finally) using a range of references in order to distill from them some underlying principles of form. Yet unlike a true research thesis, it is loosely structured and left open-ended ... intentionally so! The 'design' work provides the testing ground for the principles gleaned from those references. It also allows me the opportunity to exercise myself in synthesizing and arranging architecture. Yet as a design thesis, the work is only the start of an architecture process ... far from being complete. In essence, the thesis is an endeavour in knowing a little more about the 'dancing' between referencing and designing. / by Julia A. Campbell. / M.Arch.