Older people’s cohousing enables individuals to share spaces, resources, activities, and knowledge to expand their capability to act in society. Despite the diverse social, economic, and ethical aims that inform the creation of every cohousing community, there is often a disconnect between the social discourse developed by cohousing groups and the architectural spaces they create. This is a consequence of the building development process in cohousing, in which groups of older people are tasked with making decisions with considerable spatial implications prior to any collaboration with an architect. The concept of “spatial agency” offers an alternative model for the creation of cohousing, in which the expansion of architectural practice beyond aesthetic and technical building design enables social and spatial considerations to be explored contemporaneously. This study uses a two-year design-research collaboration with a cohousing group in Manchester, UK, to test the opportunities and constraints posed by a “spatial agency” approach to cohousing. The collaboration demonstrated how spatial agency enables both the architect and cohouser to act more creatively through a mutual sharing of knowledge, and, in doing so, tests new opportunities of sharing that are currently outside the cohousing orthodoxy.

This article explores the potential impact of future urban regeneration for older people “ageing in place” in an inner-city neighbourhood, Collyhurst, Manchester, UK. Collyhurst has been reshaped by de-industrialisation, demolition of housing, disinvestment in local services, and the closure of local amenities. The neighbourhood has been earmarked for significant urban regeneration including building extensive housing, as well as social infrastructure to cater for existing residents and attract a new population. The analysis focuses on data derived from interviews and focus groups with the neighbourhood’s existing residents as well as regeneration stakeholders. Drawing on Latham and Layton’s (2019) “infrastructural approach,” the analysis explores the changing dynamics of neighbourhoods and meanings of place for older people living in localities undergoing redevelopment with spatially differentiated socio-economic landscapes. The article argues that social infrastructure must be understood as a foundational component of urban regeneration planning, ensuring new spaces foster social connections for all generations and support older residents’ sense of local identity, belonging and inclusion amidst dramatic material transformation. Social infrastructure provides an important lens through which to analyse the impact of urban regeneration processes, shedding light both on the <em>functional</em> and <em>affective</em> dimensions of ageing in place. In neighbourhoods undergoing redevelopment, both dimensions are vital to consider, in order to understand how best to support older people’s ability to age in place.