Myth of independence: caring for house and residential facilities with care for the elderly

The innovations in the field of housing and care for elderly people often emphasize the concept of independence. Older people in these days are expected to competently and smoothly manage their own lives in a housing and care environment, that encourages self-help and selfsufficiency. Architects, care managers and politicians often are optimistic on the translation of independence into every-day practice of housing and care arrangements. By means of participating observations and interviews we explored how this translation is realised in an innovative project of 'lifetime' housing. Our results point out that strong and unexpected social factors develop in the use of space and caregiving that hinder personal fullfillment of autonomy. These problems were especially seen when every-day dependency failed to be noticed because of a too strongly emphasized autonomy.