ARCHITECTURAL THESIS SYNOPSIS

Riyanka Thomas (712115251071)

Title: Rekindled autistic aetiology.

What is Autism?

What do we, the “neurotypicals”, know about how autistic individuals see and interpret their
world? Autism is a behaviourally defined disorder characterized by impaired social
interaction, delayed and disordered language and isolated areas of interest.

Aim:

 To provide a safe environment for autistic young adults without isolating them while
giving an architectural solution that rejuvenates the general ASD (Autism Spectrum
Disorder) daily routine to create future experiences for the target group.
 To design a community for autistic young adults so as to create an enabling
environment comprising of learning spaces, rehabilitation centre and
accommodation.

Hypothesis: Autism is a spectrum disorder (ASD) that influences the individual in different ways
and in a range of extents. It prevents him/her from having a clear image on what he sees,
hears or feels. It builds serious obstacles at their public relationships, communication and
behavior.
Without no doubt, autism is one of the most complex disorders Medicine and Psychology
have confronted. Learning environment is important in promoting the development of
autistic children. The lack of proper evidence of the disorder is hence to be adhered to very
carefully.

Vision:

Creating a different user experience for autistic young adults. Architects play an important
role in creating spaces that may help individuals with autism better understand their place in
the environment with spatial designs sensitive to their needs.

Objectives:

 Helping young adults go through the transition between school and independent yet
self-reliant everyday art, while helping the person understand varied kind of everyday
activities that he may take a liking to through due course of time- creating a
 transitional space that primarily focuses on helping people understand what they
want to do later on in life.
 To identify their deficits and understand the role played by architectural elements in
their intervention.
 Providing sensory enabled accommodation for all kinds of families- families with
autistic children and also considering non-nuclear autistic families (many autistic
people start families with non-autistic people).
 To address the enabling aspects of environment that might improve functional
performance of children with autism in educational spaces and rehabilitation spaces.
For example- Visual Character, Spatial sequencing and its quality, Escape areas,
Clutter free spaces, Colour, Texture, Materials, Acoustics etc.
 Creating varied educational environments for young adults to stay independent,
those that will enhance social and personal development skills.
 To address their needs and design accommodation based on their behavioural
aspects, cultural and social aspects.
 Helping parents understand the needs of their child’s condition and creating certain
spaces for the same that caters to providing therapeutic solutions for parents and
families dealing with an autistic adult within the family. (Creating a therapeutic space
for parents and their children or anyone on the spectrum to comprehend how to
successfully move on with their daily life without treating ASD as a hindrance.)
 Break down the barrier of isolation through involvement with the outside world.
 Creating recreational spaces that are enabled to accommodate both normal
people and people on the spectrum through careful considerations that help neither
one of the parties to feel left out.
 Not going through the pilot process (basically involving structures such as schools that
help condition the student in their early ages) and rather looking at conditioning
without structured buildings (helping young adults understand the need to explore
various forms of living to be able to be more independent).

Scope and limitations:

 The scope of the project is to bridge the gap between autistic and normalcy.
 Studying the mind-set of a person on the spectrum in itself is a very vast subject
hence this topic limits itself to the study and research of their behavioural aspects in
educational environments and environments which help them in rehabilitation. It
attempts to define quiet spaces, intervention areas, open spaces, transition spaces,
circulation spaces, multi-sensory areas and inclusive education spaces for the autistic.
 Limited only to understand their perception of spaces through 5 senses.
  The project is non-existent in India and is a stepping stone to understanding the
potential development of these kinds of spaces- this is just an idea for future purposes.
 Self-acceptance: This is a phenomenon that is very conditional to the way the society
is led to think. People/children on the spectrum do not socially accept that they are
different, even though they do have higher intelligence quotient’s than most normal
human beings. As easy as it is for children to accept it, 80 out of 100 parents struggle
to believe such things are possible because it’s a socially degrading factor for the
family.
 Isolation: It is rather difficult to create a community while avoiding isolation.
 Social unacceptance: Even if at some point families’ and this child/ person on the
spectrum accept their condition, they will continue to be looked down upon by
society.
 Personal space regulation is always lack in Indian parenting, whether it is further
designed as spaces, there will always be a breach in privacy and space regulation.
 There are varied and inaccurate or every changing genetic and neutral aetiologies
of the condition. None of which is a solid lead to work on further assessment.

Research project methodology:

1. Find out experience of students, young adults, parents, psychologists.

2. Deriving research concept: Understanding the impact of the environment on their
behavioural intervention.
3. Case study analysis.
4. Establishing their needs and formulating enabling aspects of Environmental Design for
Autistic Children.
5. Behavioural analysis of these adults through the help of psychologists.
6. Analysing various theories by designers on architectural intervention.
7. Theory on Behavioural centric Environmental Design and preparing structured
questionnaire to study the effect of design parameters.
8. Schematic Design/ Conceptual Design based on guidelines.
9. Defining sensory areas, playgrounds, and circulation spaces.
10. Final Design.

Resources available:

Family friends (Families dealing with autistic children)

Psychologists (Delhi based- Geet Oberoi)

Autistic schools
Site:

Case study:

Netley school for the autistic, London (Literature case study)

Whitton gateway unit, London (Literature case study)

Autistic Friendly School, Hyderabad

SPARSH, A special school, Hyderabad

National Institute for Mental Health, Hyderabad

Tamana, a school of hope, New Delhi

National Autistic Centre, New Delhi

Justification of the project:

This is a range of clinical features that can vary from individual to individual in both the
degree of severity and variability of the clinical presentation. This can include abnormalities
in language, reciprocal social interactions, and/or other communication skills as well as
repetitive behaviours.
 This difficulty-defined disorder has been the main issue of many researchers over the
last years, as the cases of autism grow rapidly. Yet, the scientific research is not
always adequate. While a complete understanding of ASD is still growing, through
comprehensive and collaborative efforts one may begin to identify additional pieces
of the ASD puzzle that can be linked with our existing current knowledge to grow a
clearer picture of these disorders.
 The intention is to grow new ideas and possibilities for future research in this field. In
addition to improving the understanding of the aetiology of ASD, methodologies
developed for the ASD field have the potential for expanding and improving the
study of other common, complex disorders.
 As part of the transition process, children should be encouraged to think about their
interests and preferences, with an eye toward future employment- which is the
ultimate goal to independency.
 Environments can attract and stimulate their interest when they participate skill
enhancing activities. Rejuvinating spaces forr these adults is a crucial step into
broadening propspects for them.
 The presence of ASD can have a significant impact on the quality of life of affected
persons, but also for their family and/or other caregivers. The solution to the problem
cannot be limited to one, it has to have a varied experience to the user so as to let
them be more involved in their day to day care.
 Experts estimate that every 2-6 children out of every 1000 have Autism. The
prevalence rate of autism in India is 1 in 250 and currently 10 million people are
suffering in India. These alarming rates of increase call for attention by all the fields
and clearly architecture has been ignoring the effect of built environment in their
development.