A collaboration between Helen Edgar of Autistic Realms and Ryan Boren, Stimpunks Foundation
We wanted to make something together that said, “There is a place here built to fit you, not the other way round.”
Cavendish Space is our name for a psychologically and sensorially safe space, one that makes room for flow, for rest, and for coming together on our own terms. It draws on three of the oldest patterns in human learning and relating: the cave, the campfire and the watering hole. Many of us who are neurodivergent need to move between all three to feel regulated and to be creative, and too many of the rooms we live, learn and work in only offer one of them.
Did you know?
The name comes from Henry Cavendish, the eighteenth-century natural philosopher who discovered hydrogen. Steve Silberman’s NeuroTribes tells the story of a man who was very likely Autistic, and who shaped his whole life around the spaces he needed (Silberman, 2015). He had his cave, a quiet sensory and social cocoon where he could think. He had a campfire in the small, familiar Monday Club of the Royal Society, where he could sit at the edge and join in when he chose. He reached the wider watering holes of science at a comfortable distance, through his friend Charles Blagden, who carried his ideas out into the world. One life held all three spaces, and the freedom to move between them made his work possible.
The three spaces themselves come from educator David Thornburg’s primordial learning metaphors, which describe the places humans have always gathered to learn, long before there were schools or offices (Thornburg, 2014). Ryan and I recognised them straight away. I spent twenty years in classrooms with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, building sensory niches alongside them, and Ryan spent thirty years building creative teams in technology around the same rhythm of solitude and intermittent collaboration. We were both making Cavendish Space long before we had the language for it, and we dedicate the idea to the memory of Steve Silberman, a true ally to our community.
Where would you like to go today?
There is no right order and no wrong choice. You might need your cave this morning and a campfire by the evening, and that movement is part of how we stay regulated.
- 🪨 The Cave: solitude and sensory regulation. A place to be alone, rest, focus and withdraw safely, with full say over your own sensory world.
- 💧 The Watering Hole: social connection and co-regulation. A place to be near others without having to join in, for conversation and exchange, body doubling and neurodivergent love languages.
- 🔥 The Campfire: shared meaning and orientation. A small, familiar circle for storytelling, collective understanding and low-demand presence.
Head into Cavendish Space to show how you feel with the Cavendish Cards (no reading or explaining needed), set up a room so it can hold all of these zones, or read more about the ideas behind it. Everything there is free to use and share.
References
Silberman, S. (2015). NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity. Avery.
Thornburg, D. (2014). From the campfire to the holodeck: Creating engaging and powerful 21st century learning environments. Jossey-Bass.