Considerations in Design of Interior Spaces for Autistic Children

Autism nowadays has become one of the most prominent neurological disorders around the world. Despite having many medical and psychological endeavors and educational programs autism rate is increasing annually. Autism is a neurological disorder that is why finding a definite treatment seems to be difficult. Furthermore, especially in developing countries there is a lack of information about autism and how to behave with autistics, for that, many autistics get no education and do not have a chance to communicate with other people. This creates social, economic, and psychological problems in society. From 2000s onwards there are few attempts to search about autistics’ needs in physical environment pertaining to architectural design. However, the disorder requires more research and observation to know which spatial qualities may enhance their performance in learning process, and encourage them to participate in the normal life. The Purpose of this study is to prepare a comprehensible design checklist for architects and interior designers to be used in design of spaces for autistics. The study focuses on children with autism at age 3-7 years while they are in preschools and kindergartens and preparing to go to primary schools. The design checklist is prepared based on the data obtained from literature survey as well as the information gained from the experts as psychologists, sociologists, and therapists who worked in autism centers and parents and siblings of autistics who answered the questionnaires. For that reason, two autism centers were chosen in Iraqi-Kurdistan as case studies. The result of this research is a collection of findings related to autistics’ sensitivities in space, related to their seven senses. More interpretations have been done to translate this information to find what makes autistics comfortable to be used in spaces and what makes them distracted to be avoided in the physical environment. This research highly recommends this design checklist to architects and interior designers who intend to design spaces for autistics, as it includes many design considerations for autistics based on a scholarly research. Keywords: Autism, sensitivity in autism, universal design, senses of space, autism and interior space.