Autism Design and Architecture For All: Architecture for a Differently Abled World

Architecture for All

Guest architect: Magda Mostafa

Architettura per Tutti

Architectural discourse has, throughout our modern history, been at the nexus of the contemplation and the paradigm shifting debate that has shaped our built environment and moved our spatial thinking forward. There is no doubt that such progress was not, nor will be possible without different ways of thinkingthe kinds of ways of thinking that neurodiversity brings. It is diversity that provides the fertile ground for the critical discourse that drives this progress. It is diversity that provides the unique and innovative lenses through which the world can be observed, problems approached and solutions tackled to make often fieldshifting progress. Without diversity our knowledge will stagnate, our architectural minds will not be challenged to adapt, grow and develop to create the solutions for our unknown built future. But such diversity cannot be effective and productive if it is not embraced by a holistic ecosystem of support, facilitation and accommodation. Strides have been taken to create an ecosystem of academic, social and operational support for Neurodiverse thinking but without the built environment to support it that diversity cannot flourish. Our hopes are that this COLLECTION OF WORKS will help spark a conversation around creating the holistic landscape for diversity to flourish, and for Neurodiverse and autistic individuals to begin to have agency over space, to not only be included into, but to contribute to the paradigm shifting knowledge production needed in our future. We hope that this conversation will continue, be scaled up and resonate across our pursuits of scholarship and place-making, striving for an autism friendly world, where diversity can flourish everywhere.

Magda Mostafa, epilogue text, Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space: the World through an Autistic Lens, European Cultural Center, Time Space Existence exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale, 2021, Venice Italy.

The works - and their prolific authors - included here have begun this critical conversation. These are curated across three different acts:

• Vision which includes a curatorial statement and illustrated position essay;

• Voices which includes visual works from the perspective of the autistic lived experience in the built environment;

• Intersections and Expansions which looks at how this work is applied to different typologies- education, healthcare, housing etc.- and intersects with different identities- gender, mobility, deafness...

Through their perceptual investigations, visualizations of the built environment and spatial interrogations, both built and unbuilt, these works iterate with the pendulum of the imaginary and the tangible. This collection hopes to afford us the opportunity to perceive a world from the autistic imaginary, and perhaps extrapolate lessons that can help impact the broader inclusiveness of our future built spaces.

Magda Mostafa, 2021

Building for A Differently Abled World:

from Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space to Architectural Imaginaries of Autistic Space

Architecture is the source of, or canvas for, virtually all manmade sensory input and can therefore either be enabling to autistic access, inclusion and joy in its spaces- or disabling. It cannot, and is not, neutral. We must, as a profession, take responsibility for that role- understand it and develop tools to mitigate the barriers that it creates for far too many people. What is seemingly a lofty aspiration of social justice and inclusion actually has real-life ramifications. Autistic and neuro-diverse individuals are less healthy than their peers, partially because of the physical context of many healthcare spaces; autistic students, despite academic aptitude, drop out more often and fail to complete their education at much higher rates than their colleagues; and unemployment in the autistic community is exceedingly higher than the typical average, despite capability and skill in many potential autistic employees. The built environment in which these statistics play out can go a long way to mitigate them, and at the minimum create a stage upon which these successes can potentially unfold.

Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space: the World from an Autistic Lens Magda Mostafa, 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, Time Space Exhibition, Palazzo Bembo. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro Courtesy of the European Cultural Centre

Map of the ASPECTSS global impact across scholarship, research and practice in five continents from “Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space: the World through an Autistic Lens” displayed at 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, European Cultural Center, Palazzo Bembo Image created by Injy Ashour, © Magda Mostafa

An estimated 1.5% of the world’s population exists somewhere on the broad spectrum of autism. For far too long this spectrum, despite its diversity and nuance, was viewed as a monolithic, pathologized condition, to be cured or treated, rather than better understood or even celebrated as an identity and an alternative, but equally valid perceptual model of the world around us. This position has since shifted to a more strength based identity first position, and as the peak cohort of individuals first diagnosed when awareness was growing in the early 2000s are now reaching adulthood, self-advocacy has become an important and increasingly heard voice in the community. But architecture must listen. Despite this growing voice, the role of the built environment as a crucial partner in the livelihood of this population continues to remain largely unchanged. The burden of coping, adapting and managing the often overwhelming and over stimulating ubiquity of the sensory world we live in remains one for the autistic individual themselves to bear alone, while the architectural world that creates it, is largely absolved of all responsibility. This must change. As awareness grows, a sense of responsibility is following, but in many cases its actors lack the tools to create this new more accessible, sensory mitigated world, where autistic perception is part of the model considered when designing. Among these tools, and indeed one of the first research-based, is the Autism ASPECTSS Design Index which we developed through a decade of investigations and design research, and later published in 2014. Composed of 7 architectural attributes, it is nonprescriptive and provides a framework through which we can conceive of and develop our architectural spaces to be more inclusive of- and informed by- the autistic perspective and lived experience. It currently informs scholarship, research and practice in 5 continents around the world.

Neurodiversity: Multi-sensory Garden Pavilion by I-Ting Tsai and Taiming Chen, Yale School of Architecture, Spring 2020 from Exhibitionism: Politics of Display Instructor: Prof. Joel Sanders. Guest Critic: Prof. Magda Mostafa. Images © I-Ting Tsai, Taiming Chen

Its 7 attributes are:

• Acoustics - which calls for the understanding of space beyond its visio-centricity, to something that we hear and experience with all our sensesand to design accordingly;

• SPatial Sequencing - which calls for the predictable and temporal organization of space to align with the lived dynamics of space;

• Escape spaces - which calls for the creation of a spatial infrastructure to allow for respectful sensory retreat when needed;

• Compartmentalization - which calls for the organization of spaces into sensory discrete zones;

• Transition - which provides spatial accommodation for sensory adjustment particularly when moving from high stimulation to low stimulation spaces;

• Sensory zoning - which promotes the organization of space into high stimulation and low stimulation zones;

• Safety - both static and operational, in selecting materials, designing building systems and developing access and egress strategies for example.

The Escape-Scape, Glasnevin Campus, Dublin City University, pedestrian pathway concept as part of the Autism Friendly University Design Guide by Magda Mostafa & Progressive Architects, 2021, showing a sensory pathway and escape space infrastructure across campus, graphics by Injy Ashour and Abdelrahman Ahmed, © Magda Mostafa, Progressive Architects and Dublin City University.

Autism Friendly Student Commons, Glasnevin Student Residence, Dublin City University, concept design as part of the Autism Friendly University Design Guide, by Magda Mostafa & Progressive Architects, 2021, showing the acoustically mitigated social gathering space in the high stimulation zone of the commons, with transitional embedded wall seating overlooking the outdoor space, © Magda Mostafa, Progressive Architects and Dublin City University.

Autism Friendly Student Residence, Glasnevin Student Residence, Dublin City University, concept design as part of the Autism Friendly University Design Guide, by Magda Mostafa & Progressive Architects, 2021, showing the spatial re-configuration, material selections, lighting scheme and color palette of the student room prototype to accommodate autistic student needs, © Magda Mostafa, Progressive Architects and Dublin City University.

Autism Friendly Escape Space, Henry Gratton Building, Dublin City University, concept design as part of the Autism Friendly University Design Guide, by Magda Mostafa & Progressive Architects, 2021, showing the quiet escape space with embedded wall seating, soft furnishings, acoustic ceiling baffling and digital art screen, © Magda Mostafa, Progressive Architects and Dublin City University.

Autism Friendly Student Commons, Glasnevin Student Residence, Dublin City University, concept design as part of the Autism Friendly University Design Guide, by Magda Mostafa & Progressive Architects, 2021, showing the spatial sequencing and sensory zoning of the commons from high to low stimulation with requisite transition spaces, © Magda Mostafa, Progressive Architects and Dublin City University.

Below Rialto Bridge, composite image created by Stuart Neilsen during his visit to the Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space exhibit at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2021, Image © Stuart Neilsen.

Recently illustrated by the development of the Autism Friendly Design Guide, this framework helps catalyze spaces that embrace the autistic perspective at their core, yet still provide for the larger neurotypical population. Anecdotal evidence has begun emerging to support the contention that these designs not only do not present barriers to the neurotypical population, but can actually benefit other large groups- those who struggle with mental health challenges such as anxiety, those with certain alternative learning profiles such as Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, particularly in learning spaces, as well as the aging population that may struggle with similar sensory issues and cognitive challenges where they intersect with Dementia and Alzheimer. A starting point for the needed paradigm shift in architectural thinking is the autistic perspective itself. We must expand our definition of the user model to include this different but equally valid vantage point, learn from it, embrace it and allow it to shape our future spaces. We must create space for the autistic voice in the architectural conversation and receive it, not with ears of empathy or sympathy alone, but ones of responsibility to include, learn from, embrace and celebrate. There is power

to this voice that resonates to serve much farther than the autism spectrum. The autistic perspective can teach us so much: that the world can still be understood from the reduced image of a shadow or reflected silhouette; that the ubiquitous visual commodification of our spaces can be disabling for some creating a barrier to a student trying to learn, a pedestrian trying to commute and an employee trying to work; that the world around us presents far too much unnecessary sensory input and yet the very minds that it overwhelms can also provide us the insight into better comprehension and visualization of them. I believe no one has the right to exist more comfortably, safely or effectively in space than anyone else, and it is our responsibility as architects to create the built landscape that affords this comfort, safety and efficacy to everyone- the entire spectrum of the human condition. The small collection of works included here strives to present design pathways to achieving that goal, and hopefully shift that perspective to stretch our understanding of the human conditionto be more inclusive, honest and reflective of the reality of our diverse and rich humanity.

Too Much Information - The Parallel World of Shadows. These images are a re-creation of a visual story shared with Magda Mostafa at the beginning of the search for spatial understanding from the autistic perspective that ultimately led to the ASPECTSS Index. In an attempt to occupy his distracted conduct in class, and his inability to make eye contact with his teacher, an autistic child was given a camera and tasked with taking pictures of everyday images in his environment - tree, puppy, cloud, child… He returned with pictures that had none of these things in their frames, but their shadows and reflections. With this he had captured a vignette into his coping mechanism, his visual strategy to identify and connect with objects, people, animals- without having to process all their visual details. He had distilled the complex and overwhelming world around him into its silhouettes, a brilliant tactic that gave him the minimal visual information needed to understand and interact: location, proximity, scale and movement. It exemplifies the value of the autistic perspective in informing the design strategies needed in the pursuit of spatial equity and inclusion of the autistic experience. Photographs by Malak Yassin, Glow Photography, Cairo, Egypt, 2021