Thermal and visual perception of autistic people: a living lab study on environmental adaptation

Autistic people deserve attention in the design of the indoor environments. This is firstly due to the fact that autistic people comprise a relevant share of the population, estimated to reach 2.8 % in Denmark. They tend to spend more time indoors as compared with nonautistic individuals. Moreover, Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is often associated with: (1) hyper- or hypo-sensitivity to the five senses stimuli; (2) synesthesia, a crossover of senses which might drive a certain stimulus (e.g. acoustic) to cause a cognitive experience in a secondary sensory pathway (e.g. visual); (3) different sensorial adaptation and habituation. These elements may affect the indoor well-being, specifically in terms of multi-domain perception of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and environmental adaptation. In this study, we compared the IEQ perception of a group of autonomous autistic people and a control group without an ASC diagnosis. The two groups were exposed to different combinations of thermal and visual conditions in a living lab, while objective and subjective data were collected. Participants had certain adaptive opportunities (change the clothing level, change the light intensity) to adapt to the environment or adapt the environment. Satisfaction to thermal, visual, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and acoustic environments were compared. To assess the adaptation behaviors of the two groups, the results of three questionnaires (immediately after the session started, after 30 minutes, after 60 minutes) were compared with the adaptive actions. The results of the study will give a first input regarding the adaptation to IEQ conditions from autistic occupants. If integrated with other similar studies, this will allow updating IEQ guidelines and standards, in order to better align design criteria with the needs of sensitive individuals.