Avaliação arquitetônica universitária sob o viés do autismo

Abstract

The user's perception of the environment correlates with sensory experiences, which can be stimulating or even inhibiting. People with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) commonly have peculiarities regarding sensoriality and their relationships with the environment, which can trigger both comfort and discomfort stimuli. However, the contents about these relationships are mostly focused on child development, creating a gap in scientific knowledge regarding the adult audience with autism and, more specifically, in the university context. Exploring the relationship between architecture and ASD, this work makes a narrative review on the subject and investigates the environmental perception of the autistic adult who lives an academic reality. The objective of this work is, therefore, the investigation of architectural and spatial potentials and weaknesses that a university environment implies in the life of an autistic university student. The data obtained through questionnaires and interviews with students and civil servants, in addition to shedding light on a field of research little explored in the country, can be references for decision-making on university projects inclusive of autistic people. As a result of quantitative and qualitative assessments of the built environment, the need for spatial treatments in a multidisciplinary way and integrated with humanized and inclusive management of the universities themselves was identified. Furthermore, inclusive design interventions do not only take place in spaces to be created, but also in existing spaces that can be adapted. Through a comparison between the users' perception of the prescribed condition and the evaluation of the accessibility and inclusion nuclei, some alignments are established that can be encouraged and some misalignments that can be mitigated. The sensory criteria identified as the biggest problems were acoustic aspects, artificial lighting, spatial orientation and those related to ergonomics. As a proposed solution, each aspect is discussed and the condition prescribed by the bibliography is reiterated, reinforced considering its alignment with the data collected in the survey with users. Creating a more visual resource, the results are presented in summary tables with proposed solutions.