Resistance to change and a limited capacity of imagination are one of the essential characteristics of autistic spectrum, and these are reflected in aspects such as difficulty or extreme
nervousness when changing activity, and even when moving from one space to another (because people with ASD are incapable of “imagining”, in the sense of creating a mental image of what there might be at the other side of a door or wall, for example). From an
educational point of view (and even in family life) this aspect is faced by “anticipating” the
activities that are going to be carried out next, and avoiding or lessening, as far as possible,
unexpected changes in the planned routines.
From the point of view of an architectural project, the inability to construct a mental image of the environment, as well as to integrate parts into a whole, may be faced by looking for a clear structure in the building, as well as by providing elements that give
it a certain order and unity, in such a way that the building can be easily read, predict‐able, imaginable
. Referring to the transition between spaces, the anxiety suffered by people with ASD can be reduced for example, by using colours on the doors (depending
on the spaces behind them), as well as pictographs and photographs which “advance”
what we are going to find, or by creating transitional environments in between, where
the change of space can be anticipated