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Designing Spaces for Neurodiversity Blog Updates

16/11/16 Latest News

AUTHOR:
Jason Slocombe

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One of my all-time favourite TED talks is by Sir Ken Robinson, who in

2006 challenged the way we’re educating our children. He believes
that in the West we hold on to the idea that intelligence is a function
of intellectual ability. This drives an educational system that values
some subjects as more important than others, often motivated by
careers with higher ^nancial rewards.

“There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance

everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics,” he asks.
“Why? Why not?”

We are all different, and the richness of our culture depends on this
difference. Robinson proposes three principles to reform our
education system and these are: diversity, curiosity and creativity.

I would recommend anyone to experience his TED Talk here, but

beyond education reform, these principles would almost certainly
provide important lessons for the design of our built environment.
What if we designed space that celebrated diversity, or space that
encouraged exploration, participation and creative interaction? If,
rather than designing eccient functional space, we designed space
as a dynamic environment that connected us to the world and to
other people?

Diversity in this context is not cultural diversity, but the diversity that
exists between individuals. We engage the world with sensory
biology that varies from person to person. I recently attended an
‘Autism and Design’ conference in London, the ^rst of its kind,
organised by The National Autistic Society. One of the speakers, Dr
Magda Mostafa, presented ASPECTSS™, a framework she created
to evaluate “autism-appropriateness of a built environment”.

Our built environment is governed by design standards and these

have a direct affect on our sensory experience. We are sensitive to
noise, textures, colours, spatial con^guration, ventilation etc.
however, these are based on the neurotypical rather than a wider
spectrum of the neurodiverse. By understanding how design affects
people with a wide range of neurological and sensory capacities, we
can begin to understand our own neurological outlook.

During the research, Mostafa asked parents and teachers what was
the one thing they wished for. They all agreed “to take those geeting
moments of calm and connection with our children and make them
last longer”. This is just one point where the work of Robinson and
Mostafa comes together to speak to us as members of a
wonderfully neurodiverse species. If we design for diversity, design
spaces that foster interaction and exploration, space that supports
a connection to yourself, your environment and the people you care
about, then maybe we may also share in that moment of calm and
connection.

If you have a project for people on the Autistic spectrum or with

diverse sensory requirements, please contact us here

! " # $
39 Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3 5BS
architects@lelay.co.uk +44(0)20 7351 5456

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