Debating the foundations of meaningful interior design would no doubt elicit familiar ideas about how the practice exists to make spaces functional, safe, and beautiful by means of color, texture, furnishings, lighting, art, and so forth. The goals, as designers often posit, is to create rooms that tell stories and mirror the places we’ve been before, but also leave an impression of their own. But outfitting a room in the the latest hot hue of the year or with an obsessively popular It couch doesn’t guarantee it will be successful in its functionality. That’s particularly true for users who experience the world through the lens of neurodiversity—what designer and researcher Bryony Roberts describes as “the variety of human brains, [reflecting] the neurological diversity of human populations.”
While the collective focus on design has been based on decorative execution for a long time, and that isn’t likely to change (it’s what drives trends, industry bestsellers, and algorithms, after all), it begs a question: Isn’t it time we widen our approach to how a space can provide support and nourishment to those genetically wired to experience their environments differently?
Read more at: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/is-designing-for-neurodiversity-a-part-of-your-practice
