Like the unchanging patterns for dollhouses and gingerbread cottages, homes for both the young and the old have been limited to uncreative stereotypes. The standard (Scandinavian) recipe for children's spaces calls for overly busy, dwarf-scaled structures and spaces-a kind of postmodern apotheosis. Meanwhile, the elderly are often confined to Jane Austen-style settings, of the sort commonly found in open-air museums. Senior citizens today are more heterogeneous than ever before. The architecture for a mature population must serve the universal experience of the slowing pace of life, but it need not be preoccupied with creating romanticized images of what "leisure living" should be. Architecture's response to aging entails more than merely the provision of handrails, technical appliances, and services or electrical systems. When the radius of one's daily territory is reduced, one's dwelling must change to meet totally new demands. Is the television the only window to the outside world? The entry, the corridor, and the stairway no longer mark the unconscious distance from the home to the car, but grow to form a whole city for the resident. How does one enjoy an entire day within the confines of an apartment? How will the home accommodate the need to receive friends or help, when wanted or necessary? In other words, how does the private meet the public?

At Foibe there is always more than one view to contemplate; rooms in the corners of the crystal-like building open perpendicularly in two directions to allow the sun to shine in most of the day. The journey from each resident's front door begins in a semiprivate enclosure furnished by the resident and his or her nearest neighbors. Then one enters the semipublic section of the floor, where the communal stair and the elevator are located. The arterial road of the building takes one to a glazed corridor, across a Japanese garden, to the service center. The saunas, gyms, swimming pool, arts and crafts rooms, restaurant, and library are grouped in colorful "buildings" along the main hall, creating the scale of a small village.