Ann Heylighen
Biographic Data
| ID | 149039 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ann Heylighen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ann |
| FAMILY NAME | Heylighen |
| SIGNATURE | HEYLIGHEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6811-3464 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Informing Heritage Conservation Through Diverse Experiences: The Case of the Leuven Town Hall
Awareness is growing of the need for more inclusive and sustainable cities and communities, as evident in the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The targets underline the importance of participatory approaches, protecting cultural and natural heritage, and providing universal access to inclusive public spaces. To achieve these targets in the context of built heritage, our research explores a pathway that aligns with c…
Reducing Prejudices through Architectural Design: Young People’s Experiences at a Child Psychiatric Center
While the importance of appropriate mental health care for young people is increasingly acknowledged, the role of the built environment in this context receives little attention. We investigate this role in how children and teenagers experience care at a child psychiatric center. We interviewed them, their parents and caregivers using methods that addressed the young people’s lifeworld and that introduced a spatial dimension. The participants per…
Home tailoring: Independent living on the autism spectrum
Many autistic adults tend to live with their parents rather than independently. Few studies exist about what independent living means from their perspective and what role the built environment plays therein. Our study reports on the lived experience of two autistic men living in two different residential settings. Data were collected through conducting in-depth interviews, photographing, drawing and following social media sites during one year, a…
Drawing the researcher into data: Drawing as an Analytical Tool in Qualitative Research
In qualitative research, visual methods often entail engaging with images as the subject of analysis. Yet, images may be of value also as a means of analysis. This article reflects on this analytical value in relation to drawings. To this end, the authors explore drawings made by researchers in various phases of qualitative research. Drawings made 'in the margin' are put centre stage to better understand their role in data analysis. They allow re…
Practices of Care in a Multipavilion Prison: An Exploratory Study on the Role of the Built Environment
People’s health and well-being is known to be affected by the built environment. Since prisons are confronted with an overrepresentation of people with mental and physical health issues, we examine how the built prison environment affects the provision of care for prisoners with specific needs. Based on observations and (focus group) interviews with prisoners, prison officers, and care-staff, we report on the experiences of specific groups in hig…
Exploring Embodied Place Attachment Through Co‐Creative Art Trajectories: The Case of Mount Murals
The built and living environment in the Flemish region in Belgium is evolving noticeably. It is densifying at an ever‐faster pace and, along the way, becoming increasingly unfamiliar to its inhabitants. Many people face profound difficulties in autonomously and positively dealing with such drastic changes, causing their feeling of home to waver. Triggered by these challenges and supported by the local authority of a Flemish town, the experimental…
Re-grounding the concept of liminality by foregrounding spatial aspects in experiences of cancer care
Seeking a balance between privacy and connectedness in housing for refugees
The Importance of the Built Environment in Person-Centred Rehabilitation at Home: Study Protocol
Health services will change dramatically as the prevalence of home healthcare increases. Only technologically advanced acute care will be performed in hospitals. This-along with the increased healthcare needs of people with long-term conditions such as stroke and the rising demand for services to be more person-centred-will place pressure on healthcare to consider quality across the continuum of care. Research indicates that planned discharge tai…
Researching and Designing Health Care Environments: A Systematized Review of Creative Research Methods
In research and design, Creative Research Methods (CRMs) are useful to gain insight into user perspectives. Reviews suggest that CRMs offer potential to engage people, yet little detail is available regarding their use in relation to built health care environments. Consider environments for cancer care, where patients are confronted with particular physical and emotional challenges. This review aims to synthesize what is known from existing liter…
Understanding children's spatiality in cancer care environments: Untangling everyday practices around an IV-stand in a paediatric day-care ward
Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward
2019). Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 641-654
Through the eyes of a deaf architect: Reconsidering Conventional Critiques of Vision-Centered Architecture
Critics point to an excessive visual emphasis in Western architecture bringing about a weakened sense of belonging, and a disconnection from places and from other people. Architects' visual way of knowing and working is further criticized for contributing to an alienating "architecture of the eye." This article seeks to challenge this critique by offering a more nuanced understanding of vision and its connecting potential. To this end, it engages…
Breaking Down Barriers
Inpatients’ Spatial Experience: Interactions Between Material, Social, and Time-Related Aspects
For inpatients who spend a longer time in the hospital, the built environment plays a significant role in their experience. While many hospital boards aim to create a patient-centered hospital, few have a specific idea about what this means in terms of spatial qualities. This creates a major challenge for those involved in designing hospital environments. Therefore, we aimed to identify which elements play a role in inpatients’ spatial experience…
QualiBuddy: An online tool to improve research skills in qualitative data analysis
Purpose Novice researchers experience difficulties in analysing qualitative data. To develop the skills necessary for qualitative data analysis, theoretical manuals are often insufficient. Supervisors supporting students in analysing qualitative data stress the need for practical guidance, including exercises and feedback. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss QualiBuddy, an interactive online support tool in answer to this need. De…
How architectural design affords experiences of freedom in residential care for older people
Autism-friendly architecture from the outside in and the inside out: An explorative study based on autobiographies of autistic people
Mary's Little Worlds: Changing Person-Space Relationships When Living With Dementia
With the case study presented in this article we explore how people with dementia experience and use their environment to expand our understanding of how architectural environments can improve their well-being. We focus on how relationships between people and spaces change for people with dementia. Using a qualitative analysis of three in-depth interviews with a woman living with dementia, we obtained an insider's perspective and a rich account o…
Home in Later Life: A Framework for the Architecture of Home Environments
With the growing number of people moving into old age, architects face the challenge of designing appropriate residential environments for current and future generations of older people. Too often they live in houses that are not adapted to their needs and desires, with few spatial and social qualities of a real home. Among architects and professional care givers awareness is growing of the importance of “feeling at home” in residential care envi…
Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s
“{Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s” is an edited compilation of articles that explore the complexity of embodied human experience within the built environment. A particular aim of these collected works is to look toward how deepening one’s understandings of the experiences of bodies in space and place can contribute to future built environments. The contributors to this special issue are trained in practice-based disciplines such as arc…
Distributed (design) knowledge exchange
How relative absolute can be: Sumi and the impact of the nature of the task in measuring perceived software usability
The right story at the right time: Towards a tacit knowledge resource for (student) designers
How architectural design affords experiences of freedom in residential care for older people
Autism-friendly architecture from the outside in and the inside out: An explorative study based on autobiographies of autistic people
Re-grounding the concept of liminality by foregrounding spatial aspects in experiences of cancer care
Through the eyes of a deaf architect: Reconsidering Conventional Critiques of Vision-Centered Architecture
Critics point to an excessive visual emphasis in Western architecture bringing about a weakened sense of belonging, and a disconnection from places and from other people. Architects' visual way of knowing and working is further criticized for contributing to an alienating "architecture of the eye." This article seeks to challenge this critique by offering a more nuanced understanding of vision and its connecting potential. To this end, it engages…
QualiBuddy: An online tool to improve research skills in qualitative data analysis
Purpose Novice researchers experience difficulties in analysing qualitative data. To develop the skills necessary for qualitative data analysis, theoretical manuals are often insufficient. Supervisors supporting students in analysing qualitative data stress the need for practical guidance, including exercises and feedback. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss QualiBuddy, an interactive online support tool in answer to this need. De…
Home in Later Life: A Framework for the Architecture of Home Environments
With the growing number of people moving into old age, architects face the challenge of designing appropriate residential environments for current and future generations of older people. Too often they live in houses that are not adapted to their needs and desires, with few spatial and social qualities of a real home. Among architects and professional care givers awareness is growing of the importance of “feeling at home” in residential care envi…
Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s
“{Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s” is an edited compilation of articles that explore the complexity of embodied human experience within the built environment. A particular aim of these collected works is to look toward how deepening one’s understandings of the experiences of bodies in space and place can contribute to future built environments. The contributors to this special issue are trained in practice-based disciplines such as arc…
Drawing the researcher into data: Drawing as an Analytical Tool in Qualitative Research
In qualitative research, visual methods often entail engaging with images as the subject of analysis. Yet, images may be of value also as a means of analysis. This article reflects on this analytical value in relation to drawings. To this end, the authors explore drawings made by researchers in various phases of qualitative research. Drawings made 'in the margin' are put centre stage to better understand their role in data analysis. They allow re…
Seeking a balance between privacy and connectedness in housing for refugees
Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward
2019). Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 641-654
Inpatients’ Spatial Experience: Interactions Between Material, Social, and Time-Related Aspects
For inpatients who spend a longer time in the hospital, the built environment plays a significant role in their experience. While many hospital boards aim to create a patient-centered hospital, few have a specific idea about what this means in terms of spatial qualities. This creates a major challenge for those involved in designing hospital environments. Therefore, we aimed to identify which elements play a role in inpatients’ spatial experience…
Mary's Little Worlds: Changing Person-Space Relationships When Living With Dementia
With the case study presented in this article we explore how people with dementia experience and use their environment to expand our understanding of how architectural environments can improve their well-being. We focus on how relationships between people and spaces change for people with dementia. Using a qualitative analysis of three in-depth interviews with a woman living with dementia, we obtained an insider's perspective and a rich account o…
Exploring Embodied Place Attachment Through Co‐Creative Art Trajectories: The Case of Mount Murals
The built and living environment in the Flemish region in Belgium is evolving noticeably. It is densifying at an ever‐faster pace and, along the way, becoming increasingly unfamiliar to its inhabitants. Many people face profound difficulties in autonomously and positively dealing with such drastic changes, causing their feeling of home to waver. Triggered by these challenges and supported by the local authority of a Flemish town, the experimental…
Understanding children's spatiality in cancer care environments: Untangling everyday practices around an IV-stand in a paediatric day-care ward
The right story at the right time: Towards a tacit knowledge resource for (student) designers
Distributed (design) knowledge exchange
How relative absolute can be: Sumi and the impact of the nature of the task in measuring perceived software usability
Home in Later Life: A Framework for the Architecture of Home Environments
With the growing number of people moving into old age, architects face the challenge of designing appropriate residential environments for current and future generations of older people. Too often they live in houses that are not adapted to their needs and desires, with few spatial and social qualities of a real home. Among architects and professional care givers awareness is growing of the importance of “feeling at home” in residential care envi…
Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s
“{Im}materiality: Designing for More Sense/s” is an edited compilation of articles that explore the complexity of embodied human experience within the built environment. A particular aim of these collected works is to look toward how deepening one’s understandings of the experiences of bodies in space and place can contribute to future built environments. The contributors to this special issue are trained in practice-based disciplines such as arc…
Mary's Little Worlds: Changing Person-Space Relationships When Living With Dementia
With the case study presented in this article we explore how people with dementia experience and use their environment to expand our understanding of how architectural environments can improve their well-being. We focus on how relationships between people and spaces change for people with dementia. Using a qualitative analysis of three in-depth interviews with a woman living with dementia, we obtained an insider's perspective and a rich account o…
Autism-friendly architecture from the outside in and the inside out: An explorative study based on autobiographies of autistic people
QualiBuddy: An online tool to improve research skills in qualitative data analysis
Purpose Novice researchers experience difficulties in analysing qualitative data. To develop the skills necessary for qualitative data analysis, theoretical manuals are often insufficient. Supervisors supporting students in analysing qualitative data stress the need for practical guidance, including exercises and feedback. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss QualiBuddy, an interactive online support tool in answer to this need. De…
How architectural design affords experiences of freedom in residential care for older people
Breaking Down Barriers
Inpatients’ Spatial Experience: Interactions Between Material, Social, and Time-Related Aspects
For inpatients who spend a longer time in the hospital, the built environment plays a significant role in their experience. While many hospital boards aim to create a patient-centered hospital, few have a specific idea about what this means in terms of spatial qualities. This creates a major challenge for those involved in designing hospital environments. Therefore, we aimed to identify which elements play a role in inpatients’ spatial experience…
The Importance of the Built Environment in Person-Centred Rehabilitation at Home: Study Protocol
Health services will change dramatically as the prevalence of home healthcare increases. Only technologically advanced acute care will be performed in hospitals. This-along with the increased healthcare needs of people with long-term conditions such as stroke and the rising demand for services to be more person-centred-will place pressure on healthcare to consider quality across the continuum of care. Research indicates that planned discharge tai…
Researching and Designing Health Care Environments: A Systematized Review of Creative Research Methods
In research and design, Creative Research Methods (CRMs) are useful to gain insight into user perspectives. Reviews suggest that CRMs offer potential to engage people, yet little detail is available regarding their use in relation to built health care environments. Consider environments for cancer care, where patients are confronted with particular physical and emotional challenges. This review aims to synthesize what is known from existing liter…
Understanding children's spatiality in cancer care environments: Untangling everyday practices around an IV-stand in a paediatric day-care ward
Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward
2019). Conversations between procedural and situated ethics: Learning from video research with children in a cancer care ward. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 641-654
Through the eyes of a deaf architect: Reconsidering Conventional Critiques of Vision-Centered Architecture
Critics point to an excessive visual emphasis in Western architecture bringing about a weakened sense of belonging, and a disconnection from places and from other people. Architects' visual way of knowing and working is further criticized for contributing to an alienating "architecture of the eye." This article seeks to challenge this critique by offering a more nuanced understanding of vision and its connecting potential. To this end, it engages…
Seeking a balance between privacy and connectedness in housing for refugees
Exploring Embodied Place Attachment Through Co‐Creative Art Trajectories: The Case of Mount Murals
The built and living environment in the Flemish region in Belgium is evolving noticeably. It is densifying at an ever‐faster pace and, along the way, becoming increasingly unfamiliar to its inhabitants. Many people face profound difficulties in autonomously and positively dealing with such drastic changes, causing their feeling of home to waver. Triggered by these challenges and supported by the local authority of a Flemish town, the experimental…
Re-grounding the concept of liminality by foregrounding spatial aspects in experiences of cancer care
Practices of Care in a Multipavilion Prison: An Exploratory Study on the Role of the Built Environment
People’s health and well-being is known to be affected by the built environment. Since prisons are confronted with an overrepresentation of people with mental and physical health issues, we examine how the built prison environment affects the provision of care for prisoners with specific needs. Based on observations and (focus group) interviews with prisoners, prison officers, and care-staff, we report on the experiences of specific groups in hig…
Drawing the researcher into data: Drawing as an Analytical Tool in Qualitative Research
In qualitative research, visual methods often entail engaging with images as the subject of analysis. Yet, images may be of value also as a means of analysis. This article reflects on this analytical value in relation to drawings. To this end, the authors explore drawings made by researchers in various phases of qualitative research. Drawings made 'in the margin' are put centre stage to better understand their role in data analysis. They allow re…
Reducing Prejudices through Architectural Design: Young People’s Experiences at a Child Psychiatric Center
While the importance of appropriate mental health care for young people is increasingly acknowledged, the role of the built environment in this context receives little attention. We investigate this role in how children and teenagers experience care at a child psychiatric center. We interviewed them, their parents and caregivers using methods that addressed the young people’s lifeworld and that introduced a spatial dimension. The participants per…
Home tailoring: Independent living on the autism spectrum
Many autistic adults tend to live with their parents rather than independently. Few studies exist about what independent living means from their perspective and what role the built environment plays therein. Our study reports on the lived experience of two autistic men living in two different residential settings. Data were collected through conducting in-depth interviews, photographing, drawing and following social media sites during one year, a…
Informing Heritage Conservation Through Diverse Experiences: The Case of the Leuven Town Hall
Awareness is growing of the need for more inclusive and sustainable cities and communities, as evident in the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The targets underline the importance of participatory approaches, protecting cultural and natural heritage, and providing universal access to inclusive public spaces. To achieve these targets in the context of built heritage, our research explores a pathway that aligns with c…
Psychology (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Participatory Visual Research Methods (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Engineering (5 works) · Urban Green Space and Health (5 works) · Architecture (4 works)