DAY 2 • WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER • 16.45 – 17.30
Panel discussion: Creating neuroinclusive spaces: Designing for comfort, choice and wellbeing
A cross-disciplinary panel exploring how the physical environment can support different sensory, cognitive and accessibility needs.
Bringing together perspectives from lighting, acoustics, flooring and spatial design, the discussion will explore how different elements of the built environment interact to shape comfort, usability and wellbeing — and how designers can create spaces that offer greater choice and support a wider range of users.
Key themes:
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How lighting, acoustics, materials and spatial design combine to shape sensory experience
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Designing for greater comfort, choice and control across different user needs
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How flooring, texture and materiality can influence the experience of a space
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Common design pitfalls when sensory considerations are treated in isolation
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Practical approaches to creating more inclusive environments, from new build to retrofit
Laura Light, Concept Design Team Leader UKIMEA, Interface.
Dr Cathy Dalton Architect, inclusive designer, digital tech innovator/ consultant, Muse Design
Dan Bailey, Associate Director, Accoustician, Buro Happold
Jemima Unwin Teji, UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering (IEDE)
Georgina Wilson-Cousins (Moderator), Inclusive Accessible Design and Consultancy, UCL Bartlett IEDE
Laura Light
Laura Light is Concept Design Team Lead at Interface, with over 20 years of experience in workplace design. She works with clients, architects and design teams to create people-centred environments that support wellbeing, engagement and performance.
At Interface, a global leader in flooring solutions, Laura helps organisations understand how flooring, materials, colour and texture can shape the experience of space. Her work focuses on translating emerging trends, human insights and sustainability principles into practical design solutions that enhance the way people feel, work and interact within the built environment.
Laura has a particular interest in sensory design and the impact of materiality, colour and spatial experience on human behaviour. As a regular speaker on these topics, she combines strategic leadership with hands-on design practice, helping clients create meaningful, effective and inclusive environments.
Dr Cathy Dalton
Dr Cathy Dalton is an architect and researcher with a career-long involvement in Universal and Inclusive Design, advocating for inclusion through both design and research, which evolved from her design practice. Current work is in the area of Design for Neurodiversity/sensory design, and in particular its intersection with existing practice and standards in Universal Design.
As a founding partner of Dalton & O’Donnell Architects & Interior Designers, her portfolio included innovative healthcare design and Universal Design projects for state clients. She was awarded UCC’s first PhD in Architecture in 2014, for research into responsive sensory environments and long-term residential accommodation for elderly people with dementia. She subsequently held an EU MSCA post-doctoral research fellowship in Assistive Technologies, researching and prototyping therapeutic immersive multisensory environments for autistic students.
Dr Dalton has lectured and contributed to design conferences in Ireland, the U.K. and Europe, and most recently India, and publishes and reviews papers and articles on architectural and digital design. Sh has contributed to housing policy in Ireland, most recently in relation to housing adaptation grants, and also in promoting systematic adaptation and re-use of vacant buildings as an initiative to address the housing crisis. She is affiliated with Cork Centre for Architectural Education, jointly operated by UCC and MTU.
Dan Bailey
Daniel Bailey is an Associate Director at Buro Happold and a specialist acoustician with over a decade of experience helping clients create places that work better for people.
His work spans workplaces, education, residential, cultural and infrastructure projects across the UK and internationally, with a particular focus on the relationship between environment, wellbeing and human performance.
Daniel has played a key role in the development and delivery of neuroinclusive design strategies, helping multidisciplinary teams understand how acoustics, alongside light, air quality and spatial design, can influence concentration, comfort and cognitive load.
He is passionate about translating complex technical concepts into practical design solutions that support a wider range of users and create environments that are not only compliant, but genuinely inclusive and enjoyable to use.
Jemima Unwin Teji
Dr Jemima Unwin Teji is an Associate Professor in Lighting at the UCL Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering, part of the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources.
Her research on human factors in lighting includes assessing atypical colour perceptions in neurodivergent individuals, alongside PhD researcher Ruoxi Yin. She is a chartered architect and also worked as a lighting designer.
Georgina Wilson-Cousins
Georgina has over 10 years' experience contributing to inclusive and accessible strategies and solutions across the built environment sector, working in advisory, consultancy and engineering construction roles. Georgina's lived experiences of intersectionality informs an open-minded, collaborative approach to engaging with end users and has shaped her commitment to co-design.
She is particularly passionate about intersectional approaches to accessibility and inclusion that recognise thus respond to neurodiverse experiences across all protected characteristics.