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Although some architects have found spatial order and proportion strategy effective in designing the environment for autistic children, it is not clear what spatial ratios are preferred for autistic people. Therefore, this study aims to find the desired ratio among autistic and non-autistic children.

The scale model questionnaire was chosen to determine the difference in the ratio preferences for autistic and non-autistic children, whereas two access types between the space zones are also considered. The questionnaire was administered to 50 autistic children, with a half-and-half distribution of moderate and mild autism groups, while males are twofold. It was also administered to 50 non-autistic children, approximately equal in terms of gender division. The scale model was designed in the form of a dollhouse to be played with a doll in 6 varied rooms categorized by 3 different ratios (1:1, golden ratio, 1.6:1 and 5:2) and 2 access types (linear and radial access) to measure how many times each room was selected by each group to run numerical analysis.

It was shown that, although the golden ratio has been previously considered in space design for autistic children, they appealed to the ratio of 2:5 with high frequency. While there is a significant difference between the spatial ratios preferred by autistic and non-autistic children choosing the golden ratio, the same type of space access system is preferred by both groups in their results.

Despite the prevalent use of the golden ratio in design for autism design, this research shaped an empirical study for autistic users concluding a different perspective in design for autism.

According to architectural research, modifying environmental features has the potential to create an appropriate sensory environment for autistic children. Considering the design of public environments, it is difficult to accommodate the diverse requirements of each autistic child. The main objective of this paper is to find out the most prevalent architectural strategies and to prioritise them for the design of the public spaces addressing autistic children's needs.

This research is designed in two stages: (1) descriptive approach in which architectural strategies are extracted from theories on autism design to determine a theoretical test module; and (2) quantitative approach in which the frequency of gained strategies are studied in two groups of references: general references and key references (i.e. most cited and well-reputed researchers in autism architecture) while universal design strategies and the timeline of each strategy is considered for the conclusion.

The following strategies were highly significant: (1) acoustical control, (2) visual control, (3) legibility, (4) safety and security, (5) predictable spaces. Acoustic was frequently considered in both control and general groups while it was highlighted in timeline study and universal design strategies.

The main limitation is that these strategies have been prioritised according to their frequency in some limited articles and a control group including the pioneer of autism design researchers while verifying these strategies may not be strong enough. Likewise, the conclusion related to these data cannot be accurate enough. Establishing a case study survey that provides an opportunity to test all these strategies directly on a majority of autistic children and measure their prevalence is advised. Finally, it should be considered that although the five mentioned strategies are all the most prevalent strategies among autistic children, as each autistic child differs from others, generalising the conclusion for all the public area would be impossible, as though we need to study it for each group of them.

Seeking to improve the strategies' prioritisation as determined by previous researchers, this article aims to define the most essential strategies categories in this field to eliminate the confusion of researchers and designers.