Presentation short abstract

Urban greening often assumes normative sensory experiences, excluding neurodivergent publics. Based on research with autistic children in Barcelona, we show how multisensory co-creation of nature-based playgrounds challenges visual-centric planning and advances sensory justice in urban design.

Presentation long abstract

Urban greening is widely promoted as a pathway to healthier cities, yet these interventions often assume normative ways of sensing and navigating space, excluding communities whose perceptual worlds differ from dominant expectations. This paper explores how neurodivergent publics—specifically autistic children and their families—experience urban environments through multisensory engagements that challenge conventional planning paradigms.

Drawing on research in Barcelona, we present insights from a participatory design process reimagining public playgrounds as neuro-inclusive green spaces. Using shadowing and performative co-creation workshops, children expressed preferences through embodied interaction rather than conventional verbal or graphic tools. These engagements reveal how sensory dimensions—sound, touch, smell, and movement—shape feelings of safety, autonomy, and belonging.

We argue that sensory experience is not merely aesthetic but deeply political. Decisions about what feels calm or overwhelming, navigable or disorienting, reveal power relations embedded in urban design. Recognizing these dynamics calls for co-creating spaces that respect diverse sensory ecologies. Our work introduces sensorial urbanism as a lens for political ecology—foregrounding embodied perception in struggles over access, inclusion, and the right to nature. How might integrating sensory diversity into design reshape ecological and social outcomes? What creative possibilities emerge when autistic publics shape urban green infrastructures? These questions open pathways toward cities that are not only greener but more just, attuned to multiple ways of inhabiting and sensing the urban.