Autism and the Built Environment

Abstract

Heidegger (2001) ended his essay entitled “Building, dwelling, thinking”, with an exhortation to “build out of dwelling, and think for the sake of dwelling”. Many definitions have been given for Architecture throughout history, but it is (or at least it should be) clear that its centre, its aim, its main objective, is the act of dwelling. This is the reason why Norberg-Schultz (1980) affirms that, in order to research and better know architectonic space, it is necessary to understand what he names “existential space”, i.e., that concept of space that permits an individual to construct a stable image of what is around him, and, at the same time, makes him belong to a society and a culture. The need of a space that can be lived, inhabited, or dwelled in underlies an architect’s work (even if it is consciously or not) in order for a building to become true architecture. It’s this existential experience of space that grants it the sense of place and not of a mere abstraction. As Montaner i Martorell (2002) has stated, “Space has an ideal, theoretical, generic and undefined condition, while place has a concrete, empirical, existential, articulated character, defined down to its details”. The perception, the understanding, and, thus, the appropriation1 each person makes of the environment around him is different. However, there is a number of factors (for instance biological, social, cultural, psychological ones, among others) which are common to the vast majority of inhabitants –users, if we wanted to use a colder word– that allow us to assert that, even within this diversity, the built environment will be apprehended, used and dwelled in in a certain way, or, in the worst case, with slight deviations from the way it has been planned to be. Also, it is well known that, since a few decades ago, architecture practice is carried out having in mind that there are individuals with different types and degrees of disabilities (mainly visual, hearing and motoric impairments), and architects plan and design (whether convinced –this is the most common situation– or just impelled by regulations) spaces so that these can be also inhabited by those people. We speak then about accessibility, but, in fact, this word has come to convey a mostly physical concept: accessibility is, therefore, a way to grant people with disabilities physical access to building or spaces, what, ultimately, allows them to inhabit those spaces.