Creating New Classrooms for Neurodivergent Students (Opinion)

It’s likely that every university in America has a neurodiverse community, but not many have spaces where students who think differently can flourish. At the very least, they don’t have spaces that are intentionally designed to accommodate such students.

I should know, because I designed one myself and discovered that there is little literature on these types of learning spaces.

When my architectural firm was asked to submit a proposal for a series of projects at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., including a new classroom in the old library building, the brief was clear: The Young Classroom, as it came to be known, was to be a space that would work for neurodivergent students as well as their more neurotypical peers. The goal was an equitable learning experience for all students, and design was identified as a critical element in achieving that goal.

We had been working on inclusive design for a long time, but our projects were primarily concerned with improving accessibility for people with disabilities. Those projects required an empathetic view of the people who would occupy and use the spaces we built. Over dozens and dozens of projects, we had come to understand the needs of different populations and become familiar with the norms and formulas that guided inclusive design. Yet we had never been asked to consider how people who think differently might benefit from an environment built specifically for them.

While there are few architectural case studies of neuroinclusive learning spaces, there has been considerable discussion about neurodiversity in higher education in recent years. Such discussions, particularly those initiated by Thomas Jefferson University professor Jeffrey Ashley, have led Smith staff to take a proactive approach to the issue and establish a Classroom Committee dedicated to creating next-generation learning spaces that work for all students on campus.

We were brought into the project as co-creators with this committee. Through that partnership, we were able to contribute to the cause of equal education. And while there is no set formula for creating neuro-inclusive learning spaces, our experience with the Young Classroom offers some insight into how architects and administrators can work together to create better learning environments for all.

Making room for neurodivergent people

The focus on neurodiverse students makes sense. A recent study found that 15 to 20 percent of the population lives with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or other conditions related to brain function. In recent years, a rising neurodiversity movement has prompted many people to reexamine these conditions and see the benefits that can come from thinking differently.

The workplace has responded, partly out of necessity. After the pandemic began and the rise of remote work, employers were forced to rethink their work environments and address the needs of all types of workers. Office renovations designed to draw employees back into a communal workspace included many considerations for neurodivergent workers.

We had a few examples of this work to draw from during the research phase of our design process for the Smith classroom. But even three years ago, there was little information available and very little had been built. We combed through architectural journals and filled in the gaps with medical journals, white papers, and advocacy group websites. By scraping this together, we came to what felt like a consensus about the areas we needed to focus on.

We came up with two guiding principles. First, we had learned that certain environments, particularly those that create sensory distractions, can have a greater impact on neurodivergent users. Therefore, our design should reduce distractions by, where possible, limiting noise, visual contrast, reflective surfaces, and crowding. Second, we understood that we needed a design that gave neurodivergent users agency.

The importance of these two factors—a lack of distraction and an abundance of choice—was reinforced in early workshops with the classroom committee and other stakeholders that were happening at the same time we were conducting our research. Some things didn’t show up in our research but became quite clear in our conversations with faculty, students from the neurodivergent community, and other stakeholders. That feedback heavily influenced the design of the Young Classroom.

Inclusive planning leads to truly inclusive design

Furniture is a big deal. Think of the modern classroom or conference room. Such spaces are invariably furnished with mobile tables and chairs that can be maneuvered into myriad configurations. If you follow the guiding principles of choice, you might expect this kind of variability to be beneficial to neurodivergent students.

Still, many neurodivergent students we spoke with said that walking into a room that’s decorated differently than they expected can be jarring and unsettling. While choice is important, they said, predictability is also key.

This required a balancing act that led us to a new but understated design concept: fixed variability. In essence, we needed to design a space that offered students different ways to be in the space and interact with the class, but that would also be constant in its variation. That could mean having different types of furniture and articulated spaces, all anchored in place.

With that in mind, we developed and presented two concepts for the classroom. One was more traditional, with rows of desks in the large central community room and less traditional seating along the edges with some isolated cubicles. The second was more eclectic. Choice was everywhere. You could stand or lean back on a bench. Desks were optional. By all traditional accounts, it was a radical departure from a furniture set.

That’s where another important group came into play: faculty. It’s important to remember that a classroom that isn’t conducive to instruction isn’t really a classroom. Professors have a pedagogy, and the space should, if not lend itself to that pedagogy, at least not distract from it. The message was clear: the radical approach, while perhaps ideal for neurodivergent students, wouldn’t work.

As we learned through inclusive design, classrooms should accommodate a range of needs rather than being ideal for the average or the extremes. Ultimately, we combined the two concepts. The main academic space uses traditional tables and chairs, albeit in varying heights and sizes, while the peripheral classrooms use a range of less traditional seating and table configurations, similar to the radical approach.

A classroom that keeps on teaching

The final design of the Young Classroom takes into account teacher feedback while addressing all the factors important to segments of the neurodivergent population. For students, it reduces distractions, promotes choice, and balances predictability with flexibility. It features quiet, low-stimulation environments for focus; an absence of highly reflective, bright finishes and intense patterns; separate areas for communal and individualized learning (all connected via audiovisual technology); and occupant control over lighting levels. For teachers, it offers a technology-rich environment to support active learning pedagogies; a simple, consistent table configuration; and flexible opportunities to organize group work.

Now, the classroom, which opened in time for the fall 2023 semester, is being put to the test, and it appears to be paying off. One faculty member said they appreciated the ability to “use one of the corners to have more private contact with students during class.” Another praised the audiovisual flexibility that allows “students to project their work on one screen, while lecture slides or a Zoom meeting can happen simultaneously on the other screen.”

Students reported that they like the sound amplification, flexible seat backs, and break and lounge areas outside the main classroom, especially for project work after class.

It’s worth repeating: there is no formula for this kind of educational space. The Young Classroom is in many ways a prototype. More work needs to be done to understand what environments allow those of us who think differently to thrive alongside neurotypical students.

We’re going back to Smith College to follow more long-term effects. We want to see how the space is shaping the pedagogical approaches of the faculty in different ways and whether students are benefiting from improved outcomes. And of course, we’ll be talking to the class committee and all the stakeholders, especially the students. We’ll listen and learn.