The Column: Suzan Ucmaklioglu on Inclusive Design

Foster + Partners believes that architecture plays a critical role in shaping the built environment for everyone. Inclusive design is a holistic practice that embraces diversity in mind, body, and space – driving innovation and enriching the human experience at every level.

For us, inclusive design encompasses physical access, sensory, cognitive, emotional, and cultural inclusion. It moves beyond minimum standards to create environments that enable dignity and agency.

Inclusive design must be embedded from the very beginning of the process – at strategy stage – in recognition of its potential to shape the brief, design drivers, and lived experiences that will result from the project. Working closely with the architectural studios, we are striving to creatively embed inclusive desi­gn from strategy all the way to completion.

We have also initiated respective user research projects with Sociability and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project to understand how people with disabilities experience our buildings. Our ongoing work with DisOrdinary Architecture places lived exp­erience at the heart of architectural evaluation – moving beyond awareness to embed disability-led insight into the design process.

Over several months, we are visiting five of our buildings across the UK – spanning museums, workplaces, and transport infrastructure – alongside approximately 20 disabled creatives with a wide range of intersectional and dynamic disabilities. Our collective aim is to develop a series of tools based on the lessons learnt, with the intention of championing greater inclusive design practice across the industry. 

One of the key barriers is the misconception that inclusion adds cost or complexity, rather than enhancing outcomes for all users. In recognition of the knowledge gaps, particularly around sensory and neurodivergent experiences, we see a need for more education and lived experience engagement.

Once a project is complete, building management and day-to-day operations should continue to consider and appraise the varying needs of building users. Responding to these challenges, we advocate staff training, user feedback loops, and adaptable design strategies to help create environments that enable a wider range of needs, feeding into our post occupancy evaluation strategy development.

We recognise that sometimes design choices that benefit one group can be in tension with another. There is not one solution that works for everyone. For example, a visually stimulating environment may support some neurodivergent users but overwhelm others. Rather than forcing a compromise, our approach centres on flexibility, adaptability, and offering choice.

By prioritising user consultation and embedding lived experience into the design process, we aim to develop spaces that respond to diverse requirements while allowing individuals agency in their experience. Balancing these competing needs is a core part of what we do – and we acknowledge that user needs vary greatly.  We recognise that designing inclusively means continually listening, learning, and adapting.

Technology is transforming possibilities – and enabling real-time personalisation and support. Smart wayfinding, adjustable lighting, and dynamic sensory environments can significantly improve people’s experiences, particularly in recognition of the needs of neurodivergent and disabled users.

Looking ahead, we anticipate the rise of co-adaptive environments that can be altered to individual preferences using smart systems – and the increasing use of digital twins to test inclusive scenarios before construction begins. In recognition of the importance of intersectionality, future design will need to better address the layered experiences of disability, neurodivergence, culture, and socio-economic background.

Technology must always complement – not replace – human-centred, empathetic design that prioritises user agency and choice.