Field study of indoor environment for autistic people: analysis of the main sources of discomfort in a climate change context

Autistic people represent a relevant and growing share of the world population. In fact, the number of diagnoses has been rising during recent years and is estimated to soon reach 2.8 % of the people living in Denmark. Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is often characterized with hyper- or hypo- sensitivity to the 5-senses stimuli. For this reason, autistic people might have different and more restrictive needs in terms of the indoor environment. Moreover, due to their condition and social habits, they might spend more time indoors with respect to the average population. Therefore, in the framework of building resilience, it is fundamental that their indoor requirements are met in the context of climate change. Nevertheless, not many studies about indoor environmental quality and ASC exist. In this work, we analyzed the data from a field study performed in the dwellings of 13 autonomous autistic people in Denmark. During a total period of one year, occupants were regularly asked to indicate their environmental satisfaction and sources of discomfort by means of online questionnaires. In this work, we identified the percentage of dissatisfied occupants and the main sources of environmental dissatisfaction stated by the participants during heating and non-heating season, critically discussing them in relation to the topic of building resilience. Finally, we hypothesized design criteria to be taken into account to overcome the worsening of well-being of the autistic population due to climate change. Our results, if integrated with similar studies, can be exploited to develop guidelines and standards about indoor inclusive and resilient design for autistic occupants.