In interior design, every choice matters and impacts how well a space’s form supports the space’s function. While honoring the style vision is important, mindful designers with clients who have specific needs and values can further elevate their spaces with purpose-driven design. For example, design choices can be made to align with more complex ideas, goals and values such as design for sustainability, design for well-being, design for community building, design for education or workplaces, design to promote healing, design for inclusivity and accessibility and interior design for special needs.
Practicing inclusive interior design to accommodate a neurodiverse population enables designers to create more accessible spatial experiences for a diverse range of individuals across public and private spaces with various purposes.
Understanding Neurodiversity in Interior Design
The design of buildings and spaces impacts everyone in different ways. Today, physical accessibility in design is a given pretty much everywhere because it’s legally required. However, similar regulations do not yet exist for accommodating neurodiversity. Nevertheless, designing for people who experience the world in diverse ways is essential for ensuring that spaces are fully inclusive and able to accommodate as many unique individuals as possible.
What Is Neurodiversity?
While neurodiversity can be used generally to refer to the neurological differences observed in all people, it is more often used in the context of referring to a group of medical conditions and/or learning and developmental differences such as:
- Acquired neurodiversity
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Down syndrome
- Dyscalculia
- Dyslexia
- Dyspraxia
- Sensory processing conditions
- Social anxiety
- Synesthesia
- Tourette syndrome
- Williams syndrome
Why It Matters in Interior Spaces
Neurodivergent individuals often have unique cognitive, processing and sensory needs that might not be adequately accommodated with traditional concepts for interior design. Interior design that takes neurodivergent individuals’ experiences into account considers the way spaces can affect a person’s ability to process information, focus and move in the space. Recognizing the unique needs of neurodiverse individuals is crucial for creating inclusive designs that cater to individuals who experience and interact with the world in diverse and unique ways.
Designing neurodiverse-friendly spaces offers a variety of benefits to neurodivergent individuals, such as reduced stress and anxiety, an enhanced sense of well-being, increased engagement, improved focus and boosted productivity.
Key Principles of Neurodiverse-Friendly Design
A neurodivergent person’s surroundings can either alleviate or amplify their sensory sensitivities. Remembering the following neurodiversity design principles will help improve designing for ADHD, ASD and other mental conditions that include sensory processing difficulties.
Sensory Considerations
Sensory processing issues occur when the brain struggles to receive and respond to sensory information. As a result, individuals with sensory difficulties can find it difficult to balance their internal senses and body awareness in new or overwhelming spaces. In creating spaces, designers must be mindful of the senses that design primarily impacts: sight, sound and touch.
Practically, this means being mindful of the use of colors and patterns, textures, lighting and the volume of a space.
Predictability and Wayfinding in Spaces
For certain individuals, providing wayfinding markers that define spaces and zones, in addition to designing simple and predictable layouts, supports ease of use within a space for a wide range of individuals with sensory difficulties.
Flexibility and Control
Sensory-friendly spaces should feature flexibility that lends environmental control to their users and inhabitants. For instance, flexible layouts that incorporate both collaborative and low-stimulation areas, enabling climate control and installing adjustable lighting can help individuals achieve the atmosphere that feels most comfortable and calming to them.
Design Techniques That Promote Comfort and Focus
The following sensory inclusive design techniques will help promote comfort, focus and well-being in interior spaces.
Color Psychology and Mood
Partly due to the symbolic meanings culturally attributed to different hues, color has an immediate visual effect that can impact moods and energy. The color we use in interior spaces can significantly impact the atmosphere of that space and determine whether a person feels calm or irritated, happy or sad or bored or engaged. Neurodivergent individuals can often be even more sensitive and more stimulated by color choices than neurotypical individuals. Therefore, designers must consider color psychology in their design.
To create more inclusive spaces, designers should choose colors that won’t produce anxiety or make it difficult for neurodivergent individuals to focus. This means using muted and subdued colors with calm associations, such as blues and greens or neutral tones like beige or gray.
Acoustic Solutions for Noise Sensitivity
Making design choices for noise reduction in interiors is also vital to accommodating individuals with noise sensitivities. For example, using curtains, rugs and acoustic panels can help reduce noise distractions. Additionally, designers might consider incorporating insulated quiet zones into public spaces for increased usability, flexibility and comfort.
Lighting That Supports Well-Being
Light has a major impact on the atmosphere and feel of any space. Bright lights can create a sense of alertness and productivity, while dim lighting helps to create more calm or intimate spaces.
For inclusive spaces, the most crucial consideration is to create visual comfort by avoiding harsh lighting that could flicker or reflect off shiny surfaces, thereby creating glare. This type of light can be distracting, overwhelming and even painful for some individuals. Instead, try to create opportunities for filling spaces with natural lighting and installing warm, adjustable and dimmable lighting options whenever possible.
Furniture, Finishes, Texture and Materials
Designers can create flexibility and comfort in spaces by selecting a variety of designs and focusing on soft furnishings, avoiding scratchy or rough fabrics that could be irritating. Ergonomic furniture with a range of seating options such as chairs, stability balls, beanbags and even acoustic pods with movable partitions supports flexibility and comfort in a space to accommodate a wide range of needs.
Inclusive Design in Practice
In practice, inclusive design can look very different, depending on the type of space the designer is working with. For instance, the ideas and principles that work in an individual’s home might not apply or make sense in a public space.
Residential Examples
Designing a neurodivergent-friendly residence allows the interior designer to create highly client-centric solutions tailored to the unique personal needs and preferences of the individual and their family.
For homes, incorporating easily navigable layout plans that are open, yet structured with clearly defined spaces, will help prevent anxiety. To add, designers can incorporate sensory corners to provide the right kind of calming stimulation with soothing lights, soft textures and quiet zones insulated from the rest of the home’s hustle and bustle.
Educational and Learning Spaces
Many neurodiverse individuals learn in very different ways, so educational spaces must be designed for flexibility and adaptability to support a wide range of learning styles. To illustrate, visual supports, quiet zones, natural lighting and sensory tools like fidget toys or noise-canceling headphones to aid in attention and reduce distraction.
Public and Workplace Environments
Public spaces like community centers, libraries, hospitals and workplaces can also incorporate neurodivergent-friendly designs to increase inclusivity. Design ideas for these types of spaces include flexible office layouts, quiet lounges, comfortable break rooms, good ventilation to minimize smells, temperature control, throw rugs to reduce noise and sensory-friendly furniture.
Collaborating With Neurodiverse Individuals
Modern designs striving for inclusivity often incorporate spaces, called sensory rooms, which are designed exclusively to provide flexibility and comfort to neurodivergent individuals. Collaborating with clients, experts and neurodiverse individuals can help designers come up with new and personalized sensory room ideas to achieve innovative and creative inclusivity in design.
User-Centered Design Approaches
While applying broad principles of neurodiversity and sensory processing issues to design can help mitigate negative experiences for a wide range of people, optimal results are achieved through user-centered design approaches tailored to individual needs and preferences.
Either way, collaborating with neurodiverse individuals to gain a better understanding of the way in which they process, experience and interact with the world can help designers create successful spaces to promote well-being.
Working With Experts
Designers working on public spaces should consider collaborating with experts in neurodiversity, including mental health and medical professionals. Consulting with experts can help designers gain a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs that neurodiverse individuals may have. This will help them create flexible design innovations to accommodate the largest group of people.
Create Neurodiverse-Friendly Spaces by Studying Interior Design at RMCAD
Working with a focus on accessibility in interior design, you can help make a difference in countless lives by creating more inclusive public spaces like offices, classrooms, libraries, medical facilities, shopping centers and community spaces, while also helping neurodiverse individuals find comfort through specially curated design strategies incorporated in their personal homes.
If you’re passionate about accessible interior design, we encourage you to consider studying interior design at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. With online and in-person tracks, students enrolled in our Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design program learn universal design principles while strengthening their creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, providing them with all of the tools they need for practicing empathy in design and developing accessible design solutions to create more inclusive spaces.
To learn more about studying interior design at RMCAD, we welcome you to request more information about our online and in-person programs today.
