Capturing Experience: An Autistic Approach to Designing Space

Abstract

In conceiving the built environment, designers are inherently involved in shaping spaces people will live in. On the assumption that their interventions in space affect people’s experience, many designers take up the responsibility to take people’s experience into account. However, given the diversity of people who interact with space, it is still a challenge for designers to anticipate the diverse experiences of future users.

Building on designers’ challenge in anticipating experience, this paper discusses the particular design process of a man, diagnosed with autism, who aspires to capture experience in designing his own living environment. Although his structured sequence of well-reasoned design decisions could be read in the light of an autistic way of thinking, the story of the man himself offers a more nuanced picture of his design approach, which raises fundamental questions about issues that seem to be taken for granted in our own context of designing.

Keywords:

• autism spectrum conditions,
• design methodology,
• user experience

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all who contributed to the development of this research; especially Roland and his partner, for their warm reception and guided tour, in their house-under-renovation as well as in their treasure-trove of thoughts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The weblog of Roland's pilot project was retrieved from ‘Dissel 40’, accessed 21 January 2013, http://www.angenent.biz/dissel40/; the weblog of his current design project can be accessed at ‘Ziep 25’, accessed 21 January 2013, http://ziep25.blogspot.com/. English translations from the Dutch quotes are our own.

2. The quotes referring to conversations with Roland originate from the guided tour and in-depth interview, conducted by Stijn Baumers on January 10, 2011. English translations of these quotes are our own.

3. Our argumentation of adopting a qualitative approach in this case study is based on the work of John Creswell (2003), Gary Thomas (2011a), and Bent Flyvbjerg (2011).

4. Considering the environment not as ‘a reality in itself’, but as it exists in a network of relationships, both with humans and non-humans, we refer to the work of Peter-Paul Verbeek (2005). With regard to the design of the built environment, this point of view implies that this design does not exist as a reality in itself either, but is similarly involved in a network of different relationships. As a consequence, the ‘success’ of a designed environment goes beyond the design of space, and is tied with many other conditions in which that space is involved.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), and by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement n° 201,673.

Notes on contributors

Stijn Baumers

Stijn Baumers is a post-doctoral researcher at KU Leuven, Department of Architecture. He received a PhD Fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) to investigate the spatial interpretation of people with autism spectrum conditions, valuing the expertise of these persons as an opportunity to enrich the way in which architects deal with (designing) the built environment.

Ann Heylighen

Professor Ann Heylighen co-chairs Research[x]Design, a multidisciplinary group at KU Leuven which investigates how to design spaces that are more inclusive and more engaging. Ann studied architecture/engineering at KU Leuven and ETH Zürich, conducted research at Harvard University and UC Berkeley, and was awarded an ERC Starting and Proof-of-Concept Grant.