Our homes are the settings for much of our lives. They provide opportunities for us to develop a sense of our individuality, shared aspirations as a family or an extended community. Increasingly, architects recognise that the potential of the home as a positive influence requires reconsideration when designing for the elderly or for those heading towards later life. Our homes are distinct from our housing; while housing can provide large-scale standardised solutions, whether in social housing or the speculative market, the home is always a unique outcome, a reflection of its occupants. Given the importance of our homes, and their relation to our lives, how are architects developing designs that can accommodate the desires and aspirations of the ageing population? How are they recognising the demands of the postwar generation who are increasingly active in old age, and have significantly different life experience and expectations to those of their parents’ generation?