Autisme van bovenaf of binnenuit. Een genuanceerder beeld over autismevriendelijke architectuur aan de hand van getuigenissen van (jong)volwassenen met ASS

status: publishe

How do people with autism (like to) live?

Research on inclusive design focuses on designing environments that account for the diversity in human abilities and conditions. People with autism, for instance, deal with their environment in a particular way because their different way of processing information influences their spatial experience. Literature offers a growing number of concepts to create autism-friendly living environments. These concepts start from putting people with autism centre stage, yet in their formulation the autistic person him/herself often risks to disappear from view. This raises the question what meaning and value these concepts have, and how designers can use them. The study reported here aims to reconsider these concepts by refocusing on autistic people themselves. Interviews were conducted with 11 adults with autism who are living more or less independently and were willing to share their stories about how they (like to) live. On the one hand, analysis of these interviews shows that concepts of autism-friendly architecture are not indisputable rules that can be applied straightforwardly, and that one concept may reinforce but also counteract another. In each particular situation thus a balance must be sought, which will likely be easier when designing an environment for a single known inhabitant than when designing for multiple known or potentially unknown inhabitants. On the other hand, visits to autistic peoples houses often gave a sobering impression: very common houses where only details suggest that someone with autism is living there. Often, however, reality often does not reflect the ideal situation they described. The latter starts not so much from how it should be, but from how they would like it most, which does not necessarily fit the traditional view of a good place to live. As a result, this study contributes not only to a more nuanced understanding of concepts of autism-friendly architecture found in literature, but also to a more colourful image of what an autism-friendly living environment could be.status: publishe

Autism-friendly architecture from the outside in and the inside out: An explorative study based on autobiographies of autistic people

Researchers and designers each developed a particular vision on autism-friendly architecture. Because the basis of this vision is not always clear, questions arise about its meaning and value, and about how it can be put to use. People with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum are central to these questions, yet risk to disappear from the picture. Refocusing the discourse about autism-friendly architecture on them is the aim of the explorative study reported here. Six autobiographies written by autistic (young) adults were analysed from two different viewpoints. First, concepts from design guidelines concerning autism-friendly architecture were confronted with fragments from these autobiographies. The second part of the analysis started from the autobiographies themselves. This analysis shows that concepts can be interpreted in multiple ways. They can reinforce but also counteract each other, thus asking for critical judgment. An open space is preferred by some autistic people because it affords having an overview, which increases predictability, and distancing oneself from others without being isolated. Others might like this space to be subdivided into several separate spaces which affords a sense of structure or reduces sensory inputs present in one room. The six autobiographies provide a glimpse of autistic people's world of experience. Analysing these is a first step in revealing what architecture can actually mean from their point of view. For them, the material environment has a prominent meaning that is, however, not always reducible to design guidelines. It offers them something to hold on to, relate to or structure their reality.status: publishe