Glossary

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Climate Refuge

Exposure to extreme weather can be prevented through the use of inclusive public spaces of climate refuge (Amorim-Maia et al. 2023). Specifically, regarding extreme eat possible types of climate refuge, to use are cooling centres and sun shelters (Pereira et al. 2025).

 

Cooling Centre

A refuge to face extreme temperatures related with eat waves are cooling centres, spaces to prevent public health risks. (Fraser et al. 2018, Lee & Han 2024, Nunes 2024, Sehgal & Sehgal 2023). Formal cooling centres are parks, libraries and community spaces provided by governmental agencies, whilst, by contrast, informal cooling centres are commercial areas, swimming pools and sun shelters where people seek refuge from extreme heat (Derakhshan et al. 2023; & Pereira et al. 2025).

 

Cultural Model of Disability

A line of research established at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) introduced by McDermott & Varenne (1995), where the absence of knowledge about disability is understood as a cultural disability. It is stated the existence of perceptions of ability structure, perceptions of disability, and vice versa. In this scope, Ann Heylighen, explores a symbiotic relationship between architecture and ethnographical research centred on disabled people. Heylighen states the importance of the body experience in the built environment, where the perception of physically and sensory impaired people may contribute to spatial innovation (Heylighen et al. 2013, Heylighen et al. 2023). In this context, Devlieger & Froyen (2006) explore the inclusion of the perception of blind people in the scope of ethnography and architecture.

 

Health and Well-Being

A holistic balance in everyday life aiming health prevention and happiness (Altomonte et al. 2020). In this scope there are the concept of active design, consisting in the principle that the built environment may be designed to induce physical activity (Lee 2012). However, the main propose of the sun shelter is the health prevention of skin cancer and heatstroke (Pereira et al. 2022).

 

Inclusive Design

The idea of inclusive design introduced by Roger Coleman consists in a design process, that products, services and environments can be improved for the majority of customers in ways that are not associated with negative perceptions of age or disability (Heylighen et al. 2016). A similar concept is the one of Universal Design, that promotes equality and equity in the use of the space including people with diverse abilities. In this context, it is important to contextualize the academic evolution of the concept of inclusive design to clarify its differences and similarities with other terms and ideas related with equality and equity in the use of the built environment. In the late of 1950s, the concept of barrier-free design emerged in a post-war context combined with the polio epidemic, leading to an increase in the number of wheelchair users (Ostroff, 2011).

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This concept is also mention to as design for special needs and consists of a conceptual premise focused on the removal of barriers or obstacles in the built environment, primarily addressing physical impairment (Heylighen et al. 2016). Therefore, it is a concept that addresses equity in the right to spatial accessibility for a specific group of users.

In the late 1970s, Ronald Mace, an architect and industrial designer, a person with physical impairment, realized that the solutions he developed for wheelchair users could also be used by everyone else, making the concept of barrier-free design no longer relevant (Kawauchi, 2010).

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In 1985, he published an preliminary definition of this new paradigm, which he called universal design, based on following idea of equality: “A way of designing a building or facility, at little or no extra cost, so that it is both attractive and function for all people, disabled or not” (Heylighen et al. 2016).

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Contrasting with the equity-focused approach of barrier-free design, this new perspective expresses the aspiration for equality in the use of space. However, the development and consolidation of this definition give rise to a new relationship between equality and equity, consisting in the following concept: “Universal design means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Ostroff, 2011). This definition was adopted by the United Nations (Heylighen et al. 2016).

The concept of universal design is based on the following principles: “1. Equitable Use; 2. Flexibility in Use; 3. Simple and Intuitive Use; 4. Perceptible Information; 5. Tolerance for Error; 6. Low Physical Effort; 7. Size and Space for Approach and Use” (Story, 2011).

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The designation of the first of these principles might be misleading, as this concept does not focus on equity. However, the description of this principle clarifies that its premise is equality, and only when equality is not possible is equity suggested, as expressed in the following idea: “Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not” (Story, 2011).

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Other designation similar to Inclusive Design and universal design is design for all. However, we use the term inclusive design, because it communicates better the ambition of including people as many as possible.

 

Multisensory Architecture

When a built space allows a sensory balance in all its modalities providing a safe and inclusive use it can be designated as multisensory architecture.

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Aristotle established a hierarchy of the senses, with vision being the most important and touch the less relevant, on the other hand Pallasmaa (2005) argues that in architectural perception, the touch is the most important sense. Vermeersch (2013) points out the fact that there is a visual dominance in current design thinking, forgetting that architecture integrates all the senses. Moreover, Devlieger and Froyen (2006) critique the excessive visuality of the built environment and explore the experience of blindness to balance sensory integration. In this context, Herssens (2011) studied the architectural experience of people born blind to gain a deep understanding of non-visual sensory modalities. Furthermore, Pereira (2013) studied the multisensory experience of sea bathing facilities and found that if the space is designed considering blind persons, it will result in safer and more sensorially stimulating environments for sighted users.

 

Qualitative Research

A methodological approach well-suited to exploring how social experience is created and given meaning (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). This approach explores the complexity of the reality, aiming for a holistic understanding of the phenomena in study (Flick, 2009).

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative inquiry acknowledges that reality cannot be separated from sensory experience and understanding. The researcher, the participants, and the context in which information is obtained all play a crucial role in shaping the study (Lloyd & Gifford, 2024). In other words, qualitative research is a situated activity that positions the observer within the world (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005).

 

Quality of Invisibility

The spatial quality inherent to the multisensory integration of the non-visual modalities (Pereira 2013 & Pereira et al. 2017). It is of main importance given that visibility is temporary, which contrasts with the persistence of invisibility in human perception. Moreover, thinking in this quality is relevant to balance the visual dominance in architectural, urban and product design.

 

Resilience

The capability of spatial adaptation to uncertainties of change can be a definition of resilience (Eken 2019). In the scope of sun shelters is pertinent to think in spatial resilience to face uncertainties related with climate change.

 

Spatial Justice

The concept of spatial justice is widely used on territory and urbanism in current literature, being developed since the seventies by David Harvey, in the eighties by Gordon Pirie and in the first decade of 21st century by Edward Soja (Moroni & Franco 2024). By contrast, is rarely used in architecture, is possible to define spatial justice as a combination between social justice and space to foster equality an equity, being similar to the concept of inclusive design often used in architecture. Specifically, spatial justice integrates the idea of inclusive design.

 

Sun Shelter

Prevention of excessive ultra-violet radiation and extreme heat can be obtained through the use of a sun shelter, being a space of climate refuge for exterior bathing facilities and an unformal type of cooling centre (Pereira et al. 2025).

Approaching resilience to contemporary risks related to public health and climate change, Pereira et al. (2022) explore the identification of motivations for bathers to use sun shelters during periods of excessive solar radiation, in complement to the beach experience. Furthermore, sun shelters of loggia were explored in Pereira et al. (2024) involving blind people. The results identify preferences for natural materials in continuity with the outdoor environment of bathing facilities. The loggia, an outdoor covered space with open or partially closed sides, may provide light protection like an indoor environment. In this context, Pereira et al. (2025) explored the design of sun shelters of loggia, to adapt an urban beach to climate change.

 

Sustainable Architecture

A design principle that explores the mitigation to climate change, focused in a rational use of energy integrated in building materials, construction process and building performance (Sijakovic & Peric 2020).

 

Visual Conditions

The human perception integrates the following three conditions: 1. Sighted, a person without visual disability; 2. Partially sighted, a person with low vision; 3. Blind, a person with absence of sight, that can be with or without light perception.

The visual absence can be temporary in the sighted perception, as the inattentional blindness phenomena, resulting in a partially blindness due a selective attention in the visual field (Mack & Rock, 1998).

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