Umeå universitets logga

The focal question to be asked is who are Swedish architects truly building for? If the answer is not an unequivocal ‘everybody’, then the issue at hand makes itself lucid. Historically, our architectural designs have primarily accommodated the able-bodied perspective. Only in the year 2000, with the inception of the national policy ‘’from patient to citizen’’, did regulations begin to address the needs of the physically disadvantaged. However, in this endeavor, a significant portion of our society has been overlooked – those whose neurodiverse conditions impede their participation in spatial environments. Among these, a notable demographic is autistic individuals. Despite being historically marginalized, autism diagnoses have surged by 787% between 1998 and 2018, with approximately 1% of the Swedish population identified as autistic today. This translates to around one hundred thousand citizens whose spatial experiences remain unaccounted for in our architectural considerations. This thesis researches what position autism has in Swedish domestic architecture, and critically looks upon the current laws and regulation surrounding the issue. It analyzes existing case studies to ultimately prove that the very thing these buildings set out to do, they are failing at. In response to these issues, this thesis proposes not only a design framework for architects to adhere to when designing inclusively for autistic people. But also a typological application of said framework as a synthesis project, where the framework is applied to house the existing LSS housing program prevalent in Sweden.