Neurodiverse people face difficulties using public play areas. ASD Publics has developed autism-friendly design guidelines and an innovative co-creation method, including a performative workshop methodology, to co-design inclusive public playgrounds with and for autistic children and their families. These have been tested in four co-creation workshops that explored new ways of engaging autistic children through play and creative ways of exploring multi-sensoriality and connectivity with space.
Local
Spain
Barcelona local governement
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
EIT Community New European Bauhaus, Call for Proposals for Co-Creation of public space through citizen engagement
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Blanca Last name of representative: Calvo Boixet Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Researcher Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Av. Tibidabo 30-43 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08035 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 656 90 45 10 E-mail:blancacb@uoc.edu Website:https://www.uoc.edu/portal/es/in3/recerca/grups/urban_transformation_and
Name of the organisation(s): Institut Global d’Atenció Integral del Neurodesenvolupament (IGAIN) Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Loreto Last name of representative: Nácar García Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Psychologist Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rambla Catalunya 33, 1-2 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08007 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 653 77 05 35 E-mail:lnacar@igain.cat Website:https://igain.cat/
Name of the organisation(s): Laboratori d’emergències urbanes (LEMUR) Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Benedetta Last name of representative: Rodeghiero Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Founder and PhD architect at LEMUR Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Wellington, 70, 1, 9 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08005 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 680 77 16 21 E-mail:brodeghiero@lemur.cat Website:https://www.lemur.cat/
Name of the organisation(s): Barcelona City Council Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Silvia Last name of representative: Casorrán Martos Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Deputy Chief Architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Avda. Diagonal, 240 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08018 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 653 67 93 72 E-mail:scasorran@bcn.cat Website:http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ecologiaurbana
It is estimated that 1 in 100 people is on the autism spectrum in Europe. There is strong evidence that both playing and nature have numerous benefits for children with autism. Yet, public play areas are often not designed to cover the needs of neurodiverse people and their voices are usually not taken into account in the design of these spaces. Activating Spaces with neuroDiverse Publics (ASD Publics) is a New European Bauhaus funded project that responds to these challenges by improving public space, and particularly public playgrounds, with and for children with autism and their families and caregivers (the ASD Community). The project promotes more inclusive and green outdoor play areas, introducing Nature Based Solutions in their design.
To do so, ASD publics has carried out several participatory research activities, including four co-creation workshops that explored new ways of engaging children with autism through play and creative ways of exploring multi-sensoriality and connectivity with space. More specifically, ASD publics has developed and tested a performative methodology based on play and multi sensoriality that goes beyond verbal communication to explore the physical environment. This methodology is based on the assumption that every (natural or human-made) environment offers elements for aesthetic appreciation that can open-up meaningful and pleasant connections with it and transform our relationship with it.
As a result, two guidelines have been produced: 1)The Design Handbook, that has turned the demands of the ASD community into explicit design guidelines that can be easily applied and can spark creative design solutions to make public playgrounds more autism-friendly. And 2) The Co-Creation Guide which outlines a step by step process to involve the ASD Community in a participatory design process. We expect them to have a profound impact as they are the first of their kind and they are drafted as very easy-to-use manuals.
Playgrounds
Neuroinclusivity
Co-creation
Trans-disciplinarity
Nature-based Solutions
There is strong evidence that nature brings several benefits to children with autism, ranging from multiple sensory-motor, emotional, and social benefits to anxiety reduction and improvement of sensory skills. Natural elements provide a friendlier touch sensation than artificial materials such as metal and plastic, that have higher thermal effusivity values, and create less overstimulating visual atmospheres. The different textures offered by natural elements also encourage sensory exploration. Thus, promoting greener outdoor play areas and introducing Nature Based Solutions in their design has been at the centre of the project.
By transforming playgrounds into green and natural play areas, we not only make them more inclusive for autistic children but we also contribute to make cities, and in particular public spaces, more resilient and sustainable in face of the challenge posed by climate change. In addition, ASD Publics also contributes towards a more social and environmental just Europe by including collectives that have historically under-considered in both the design of public spaces and the ecological transition.
Three of the project co-creation workshops took place in green open spaces. Two of them were held in La Clariana, an ample green open space within the recently transformed area of Les Glòries that integrates several nature based solutions. This space offered children and their families a relaxed environment where they could enjoy the co-creation workshops, away from cars and other urban noises. The last workshop took place in a naturalised schoolyard, where children and their families enjoyed the play opportunities offered by the natural play elements of the school Jaume I playground.
One of the objectives of ASD Publics was to explore new ways to involve children in the autism spectrum in the design of public play areas. To do so, the project has developed and tested a performative co-creation method based on play, creative ways of exploring multi-sensoriality and connectivity with the space through aesthetic appreciation. Thus, using techniques of performative arts and involving a dancer and educator and educator, we provided a particularly suitable method to explore alternatives to verbal communication for minimally verbal children.
Another objective of ASD Publics was to foster spaces that enhance the children’s and parents’ personal experience of public play areas, both at the physical but mostly at the emotional level. Thus, we developed design guidelines to promote suitable public play areas for autistic children, focusing on mitigating the children’s possible frustrations, allowing parents to relax by making play areas safer for children, and minimising possible social conflicts. This will not only benefit them but it will actually make everyone’s experience more pleasant. Many of the design requirements to make public playgrounds more autism-friendly, such as reducing external stimuli, increasing the presence of natural materials and including elements to better manage the waiting time, are indeed helpful for other children as well and provide emotional benefits, such as anxiety and overstimulation reduction, for all.
All in all, ASD Publics provided relevant tools to design spaces that physically and emotionally connect children in the autistic spectrum with urban spaces and communities, and guarantee their right to joyful play.
ASD Publics addressed the urgent need to make inclusionary public spaces for and with neurodiverse people.
First, by granting the ASD Community access to public playgrounds and ensuring that their experience of this space was a pleasant one. The design of universally accessible play areas almost exclusively focus on physical and visual disabilities and do not sufficiently address the challenges related to neurodiversity. The needs of autistic people are indeed simultaneously unique both in terms of covering a wide range of needs and high levels of variability among autistic people. This, combined with the lack of knowledge among urban practitioners and policymakers results in their exclusion from public space. Our Design Handbook equips practitioners and policymakers with knowledge and tools to ensure that autistic children can fully enjoy their right to play in public playgrounds.
Secondly, by creating new methods to ensure that they can participate in the decision design process. Indeed, despite great progress in democratising the city-making process, neurodiverse people are systematically excluded from participatory processes. ASD Publics involved autistic children, their families and caregivers and their civil society representatives in all the participatory activities of the project through an inclusive co-creation methodology for this collective, compiled in our Co-creation Guide for replicability.
Lastly, ASD Publics contributes to creating more cohesive communities by raising awareness about the challenges that this community faces and creating convivial spaces where everyone autistic children and their families can peacefully coexist with other children and families. Two of our co-creation workshops brought together neurotypical and autistic children in a public open space, without making distinctions and creating a moment where all children were welcome, showcasing that conviviality is indeed possible if the right conditions are established.
ASD Publics was conceived as a fully participatory project and it involved civil society organisation and citizens in the research activities that led to the development of the Design Handbook and the Co-Creation Guide.
Two local autism associations have guided the project team throughout the project. In addition, they collaborated in the design, validation and distribution of a survey to assess the experience of the ASD Community in public playgrounds that broadened the project sample. These associations have also participated in the multiple participatory and public events of the project, representing the voice of the broader ASD community.
Members of the ASD Community, the citizen group that mostly benefits from the project, took part in the participatory research activities. Our visits with them at the park were key to design the workshops to which they also participated and where parents contributed to data collection. They were also invited to take part in two discussion sessions to validate the project results.
The involvement of the ASD Community and representative associations has had a major impact on the project. Firstly, their involvement, as well as the involvement of autism experts, helped the project team to break with popular assumptions about autism and to understand it in its multiple dimensions. Secondly, it forced the project team to stay on track with their demands and not lose sight of the community’s needs. This, for instance, is shown by the fact that social issues and possible solutions to these were included in the Design Guidelines which intended to initially only address physical aspects of the design. Thirdly, their involvement contributed to legitimising the project. Lastly, by being involved in the project, the autism associations and participating families were empowered not only in having a voice but also in learning other ways to look at the challenges they face.
While ASD Publics has targeted Barcelona as a pilot city, entities representing the local, the project has also involved regional and international actors. Local and regional actors indeed played a crucial role in discussing and validating its process and results, disseminating these through their networks, and actively participating in discussion sessions and public events.
At the local level, the different institutions involved through the local government (Urban Ecology Department, the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities (IMPD), and the Institute of childhood and adolescence of Barcelona(IIAB)), ensured that the city’s policies, programmes and regulations were taken into account. In addition, the IIAB, as a responsible entity for Barcelona’s Plan for Play, and the IMPD, as the entity in charge of ‘support for play’ programmes for people with disabilities, were instrumental in establishing a dialogue with the public administration to incorporate the results of the project in the city’s strategic policies. Lastly, Aprenem, a local autism association engaging on the issue of leisure, connected the project to the experience of the broader ASD community in Barcelona and safeguarded their interest throughout the process.
The Catalan Autism Federation (FCA), the largest association in the region, and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC), expanded the territorial horizon of the project by bringing in the experience of other urban practitioners, public administrations and ASD communities beyond Barcelona’s metropolitan area. In particular, the FCA disseminated a survey that was answered by 85 people from 41 Catalan municipalities.
At an International level, the project has engaged different research groups and associations doing similar work across Europe. Four of these, participated in an international online event that aims to raise awareness and instigate collaborative research on autism, play and public space.
Our team is integrated by researchers and practitioners from different disciplines and institutions that are often not in conversation with each other. The team includes experts in architecture, environmental studies, geography, public participation, urban planning and design (UOC), autism (IGAIN), performative participation with children (LEMUR), and policy making and urban management (Barcelona local government).
With UOC playing the role of coordinator, the project strategy was collectively designed by the four partners. LEMUR’s Body Driven Design (BDD) methodology was one of the points of departure for the project. This methodology relies on body centred explorations, rather than verbal communication, making it adequate for autistic children, who often do not speak and for whom sensory information plays a very important role in their perceptions. Our performative co-creation methodology adapted the BDD approach with IGAIN’s knowledge on the psychological and occupational therapy methods to work with autistic children, covering both those aspects that are related to the body and the mind. UOC played an orchestrator role in this process, designed a data collection strategy together with IGAIN, and worked with the local government to develop the project conclusions from the data analysis.
To guarantee the quality of the project and addressing the issues raised by its interdisciplinary character, an Advisory Committee Board was established. This was integrated by experts from key areas of knowledge for the project: Dr. Amaia Hervás (autism), Dr. Zaida Muxí (urbanism, inclusion and care), and Dr. María Heras (arts and performativity co-creation methodologies for environmental sustainability).
Lastly, ASD Publics has involved two autism associations and experts in other fields (play elements and playground design, accessibility, and public participation) in different stages of the process through stakeholder engagement and participatory activities.
The Design Handbook has turned the demands of the ASD community into explicit design guidelines that can be easily applied and can spark creative design solutions to make public playgrounds more autism-friendly. Public officials have shown great interest in adopting many of these into the technical requirements for the design of playgrounds. This will have a massive impact on the city, as all new play areas in Barcelona will have to comply with these requirements.
The Co-Creation Guide outlines a step by step process to involve the ASD Community in a participatory design process. We expect it to have a revolutionary impact as it is the first of its kind and it is drafted as a very easy-to-use tool for anyone interested in involving this collective in a participatory process. Officials from the Barcelona local government have already expressed their interest in testing it in their participatory processes with neurodiverse children but also with very young children, as these are now excluded from participatory processes because of the lack of methodologies to engage them.
Through its numerous activities, ASD Publics has raised awareness and generated knowledge about the challenges that the ASD community face in public play areas, contributing to place neurodiversity at the forefront of the discussions around public space. The success of the two public events where the project results were presented to a local and international audience and the number of visualisations of the Design Handbook and the Co-Creation Guide confirm that the project has sparked great interest on the topic.
This is further reaffirmed by the warm welcome from the local autism associations and the ASD Community. This collective felt that their demands fell on deaf ears and really appreciated having a team of experts work with them to understand their needs, listen to their suggestions and think of creative solutions to mitigate the challenges they encounter in public play areas.
ASD Publics has tested and implemented a groundbreaking holistic and transdisciplinary approach that has brought four main innovations in relation to mainstream approaches to public space participatory design.
Firstly, the project has generated transdisciplinary research, design and implementation processes bringing together experts, approaches and methods that have broken the watertight compartment philosophy of mainstream approaches. This has been possible by bringing together experts in autism (from the fields of psychology and occupational therapy), with experts in architecture, urban planning, urban design, participatory methods, performative methods, and environmental studies from the project inception to the elaboration of the final inputs.
Secondly, we have prioritised the needs of neurodiverse people in the design of public play areas, a collective whose voice and concerns have been scarcely taken into account in public space policy across Europe,
Thirdly, we have gone one step further and we have included autistic children themselves into the participatory process. Autistic people and children are often excluded in participatory processes, specially those with high levels of autism and young children. Our project included them in the co-creation of public spaces.
Lastly, the project has developed and implemented a pioneering performative methodology that goes beyond verbal communication to establish other forms of dialogue that are more adequate for children with autism and other forms of neurodiversity as well as very young neurotypical children.
ASD Publics departs from the hypothesis that more inclusive and sustainable public spaces for neurodiverse people can be created if we equip urban practitioners and policymakers with the right knowledge and tools. Thus, the project created methods and tools to fill in this knowledge gap. We did so following a fully participatory and multidisciplinary approach, involving a wide diversity of experts, members of the ASD Community and their representatives throughout the process. By bringing together different disciplines and the real life experience of this collective, we created knowledge loops and sparked imaginative responses to this challenge.
The project methodology was organised in three independent but interconnected stages: A preparation phase, the workshops, and the analysis and output production phase. The preparation phase created a knowledge base through a review of the latest literature, also including policies and initiatives, and visits with autistic children and their families to local parks that allowed the team to observe them play and discuss their needs and demands with their families. This information was instrumental to design our performative co-creation methodology that was tested in four where a temporary installation was created that offered a wide diversity of play opportunities for children to engage with. Being performative workshops, there was no prescribed sequence of activities to be followed but facilitators adapted to the children’s actions and responses to the temporary installations. These workshops allowed the team to collect primary data through systematic observation and informal interviews with participants. In the last project phase, we analysed data collected through the different research activities and extracted initial results. These were validated and enriched through group discussion sessions with participants and experts to develop the Co-creation Guide and the Design Handbook.
The key outputs of the project are the ASD Publics Friendly Design Handbook and the ASD Publics Co-Creation Guide. These documents are crafted as practical manuals and addressed to groups of residents, neighbours associations, architecture and urban design studios, policymakers and any entity or individual willing to create an inclusive playground, or to transform an existing one to make it more inclusive, for and/or with this community.
These documents ensure the potentiality of learning transfer and replicability beyond ASD Publics, which we see as a pilot of a much larger transformation process. In this regard, the contents in each of these documents were contrasted in two discussion sessions with local stakeholders in the fields of urbanism (both in local governments and practitioners including architects, planners, educators and playground manufacturers), neuro-therapists and the ASD Community (families, neurodiverse urbanists and Autism associations). Through this process, we have ensured that the project final results were robust and that they do not only represent the views of a few. In addition, there has been a dialogue and sharing of information with other projects working on public space and neurodiversity across Europe, reinforcing the transferability of the results of the project.
In particular, the Design Handbook provides very clear design recommendations, as well as some examples, that can help urban practitioners and public officials across the world in understanding how to design autism-friendly spaces. Each design guideline includes a description of the challenges dealt with, explaining why this is important for autistic children. While context specificity may require adapting some of the design recommendations, the challenges faced by the autistic children are quite universal and, therefore, the way that the document is crafted will ensure that it can be used elsewhere.
ASD Publics contributes to making public space inclusive and accessible for neurodivergent people, and particularly for children with autism. They are a growing collective in Europe that continues to face great difficulties in using and enjoying urban public space despite enormous progress in making cities inclusive and accessible for all. This aggravates their risk of social exclusion and discourages them from playing and exercising outdoors, preventing them from enjoying the multiple sensory-motor, emotional, and social benefits of nature for children and youth with ASD ranging from anxiety reduction to improvement of sensory skills. Thus, a first challenge that the project has addressed is to broaden the right to play for children with autism spectrum, a right recognised in UNICEF Convention of the Rights of the Child. The project has done so by providing design solutions that ensure that they can enjoy and interact with other children in the public spaces.
In the current era, with the climate crisis, it is urgent to move away from conventional design approaches that rely on artificial materials to adopt green solutions. Artificial play elements in public playgrounds are increasingly being replaced for natural materials, which are indeed very adequate for autistic children. Therefore, our Design Handbook recommends natural solutions to make public play areas more autism-friendly while simultaneously contributing to green cities.
In line with the principles of the New European Bauhaus, our understanding of “inclusion” also pimples to include their voices in the designing of public spaces. However, conventional ways of co-producing public spaces face numerous challenges to successfully include collectives such as very young children and children in the autistic spectrum with diverse communication skills. Thus, ASD publics have successfully tested a performative co-creation method to make the voice of the children heard in the process of co-creation.
