SENSORY SPACES: SENSORY LEARNING – AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO EDUCATING FUTURE DESIGNERS TO DESIGN AUTISM SCHOOLS
- Submitting institution
-
Leeds Beckett University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- R5
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i3.1704
- Title of journal
- International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 152
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1938-7806
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- November
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
-
http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/5436/1/SENSORY%20SPACES%20SENSORY%20LEARNINGPV-JL.pdf
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- Encompassing a neglected aspect of design curricula, the research questions how to teach the design of autism schools, within the context of increasing demand for autism-supported environments. A lack of foresight of this demand has limited student learning, with design for differently-abled people usually directed to wheelchair access requirements. The research introduces a new approach to the complex issues surrounding inclusive autism-specific design for beginning interior architecture students.
Answers were obtained by adopting a partially “live” project within The Lighthouse free school for autism, through innovative first-hand information gathering, involving individual sensory choosing sessions with 1 female and 5 male ASD children and expert autism teachers. The children’s optimum learning environments are discovered by utilising novel methods of extracting preferences: 2D images, sensory boxes, and pop-up environments.
The article appears in Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research. Prof Ashraf M. Salama, Strathclyde University, stated in his research paper that: ‘the growing interest in addressing the topic [of autism and the spatial environment] from the perspective of human behavior or environment behavior studies … as part of educating future designers [is] presented in the experimental work of Joan Love‘; ‘this work contributes to paving the road for future professionals to address the unique particularities of designing responsive spatial environments‘; ‘Your work is important’. Love’s paper is listed under The National Autistic Societies Network Autism ‘Useful Resources’. The article has been shared with autism specific teachers and therapists from local SEND schools and colleges. The research forms part of the evidence to establish an Autism Academics Group at Leeds Beckett University, in the near future.
The project informs, enables and encourages university educators to start teaching inclusive design early in the curriculum, abandoning its perception as a later ‘bolt-on’ option.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
