Aural-clusivity: Inclusive Design for the d/Deaf Community in Singapore | Architecture Thesis

Site Context

Drawing from Singapore’s everyday spaces of eating, learning, and gathering, this thesis reimagines these familiar typologies to be more inclusive for the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH) communities. Through interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys, the d/Deaf community identified these settings as particularly challenging—places where communication breakdowns, visual blockages, and acoustic difficulties often hinder participation.

Instead of centering on a single site, the project explores how the five design principles can be embedded within a mixed-use programme encompassing a food centre, seminar and discussion rooms, and adaptable community spaces. By experimenting with light, vibration, touch, and spatial clustering, the design demonstrates how architecture can facilitate communication, nurture multisensory engagement, and enable more inclusive social exchange.

Ultimately, the project aspires to transform Singapore’s familiar spatial typologies into platforms for participation and empowerment—recasting everyday environments as inclusive, multisensory spaces that celebrate diversity and strengthen communal bonds.

Design Process

The design process began with a community-based participatory approach aimed at understanding the d/Deaf community beyond individual experience. Through interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions, a range of often-invisible challenges were uncovered—from issues with acoustics and sightlines to broader barriers to social participation. These conversations also generated valuable insights into how spatial design could better facilitate communication and inclusion.

Building on these findings, an Inclusive Design Workshop was conducted with d/Deaf participants. Using a 1:30 model of a typical hawker centre and classroom, participants identified difficulties they encountered while navigating and interacting within such environments. They were then invited to propose more inclusive spatial arrangements using prefabricated 1:50 models, experimenting with form, circulation, and spatial organization.

The outcomes of these engagements were distilled into five design principles that guided iterative processes of sketching, diagramming, and model-making. These principles were applied and tested across eating, event, and educational programmes, examining how architecture might transcend conventional visual and auditory paradigms.

Overall, the process was both exploratory and collaborative, anchoring the final design in lived experience and demonstrating how participatory methodologies can inform more inclusive, multisensory architectural spaces.

Final Outcome

The five design principles create a multisensory, inclusive environment for d/Deaf users by combining natural elements, light, spatial organisation, and tactile feedback. Gardens, planters, and light wells guide wayfinding and reduce sensory overload, while microzones and soft partitions provide varying levels of intimacy, privacy, and social interaction. Overhead enclosures and curved forms enhance focus, acoustic comfort, and signing clarity, while tactile and vibrational elements enable non-visual, non-auditory communication. Together, these strategies shape interconnected, adaptive spaces that balance openness, enclosure, and sensory accessibility, supporting engagement and comfort across diverse user needs.

The final outcome of this thesis is articulated through five interrelated components. The Design Thesis Report consolidates the research journey, supported by diagrams that make visible the otherwise unseen challenges articulated by interviewees. This written document establishes the theoretical framework of the project while revealing the subtle yet pervasive barriers encountered by the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH) community in everyday environments.

Complementing this is the Subsidiary Document, which serves as a ground-up record of participatory research. It compiles interview transcripts, survey results, and summary tables outlining the key challenges identified through collective engagement. This document ensures that participant voices remain integral to the design process and directly inform the translation of lived experience into architectural strategies.

A Video component extends this engagement by visually documenting the everyday obstacles faced by the d/Deaf community. Functioning as both testimony and advocacy, the video raises public awareness of accessibility issues while highlighting the urgency of more inclusive design practices.

The design explorations culminate in a small-scale, mixed-use building that integrates eating, event, and educational programmes through the application of the five design principles. Iterative diagrams and physical models demonstrate how the spatial strategies evolved in direct response to community insights.

Finally, the Design Toolkit—currently under development—brings together research findings, visual analyses, and design strategies into a practical resource. Envisioned as a tool beyond academia, it aims to inform government agencies, architects, and planners in fostering more inclusive and multisensory environments.

Conclusion: This thesis redefines everyday spaces through inclusive, multisensory design that supports the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH) community. Grounded in lived experience, it demonstrates how architecture can foster communication, participation, and belonging for all.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]