What are the elements that go into good interior design for autistic people?

Understanding how each sensory element affects us is key to creating therapeutic spaces. Safe spaces where we are not stressed by our environment are essential to everyone’s mental health and especially so for autistic people and people with a learning disability who have sensory differences. When we move away from our natural environment, we become more stressed; nature is our reference. The more comfortable we are in a space the safer we feel.

We break spaces down into The 6 Key Elements:

Lighting: Flexible lighting allows for a change in mood. Direct light is uncomfortable unless needed for a specific task.

Colour & Pattern: Colour is one of our most powerful cost-effective tools, it can transform how we feel in the rooms we live in and our behaviour.

Sound: Sound is like a ping pong ball… it will bounce around a box until it hits a soft surface to absorb the motion.

Smell: Smell can often evoke memories both good and bad. Its influence is greater than we think, there is nothing more powerful than a breath of fresh air.

Furniture & Finish: Ergonomic shapes remind us of nature, so are inherently more visually relaxing. The choice of material can also heighten or soften the sensory experience.

Finding Our Way: In situations where we already feel stress, signs and directions which are unclear can create unnecessary anxiety.

When our brains and body are less taxed by our surroundings we relax, overstimulation creates sensory overload - our senses impact on how we feel in any space. Every change of colour, texture, pattern, noise and light should be considered when creating a safe space.

If you’d like to learn more about these interior elements you can visit The Environmental Hub here.

The Environmental Hub is a website sharing knowledge on how to create therapeutic relaxing environments. For those with heightened sensory awareness, such as autistic people and people with a learning disability interior design is especially important, poor interior choices can be extremely stressful. Whether it’s in a hospital, office or home, simple considerations can have a huge impact.

Created by Liz Lavendar an interior designer with over 20 year’s experience refining interior spaces. She turned her attention towards making mental health hospitals better for autistic people when her own child was admitted for treatment. She works across NHSE in the Southwest to use these skills to improve environments for autistic people and people with a learning disability in long-stay hospitals.