Multisensory Architecture and Cognitive Development in Students with ASD: Correlational Analysis and Empirical Hierarchization of Spatial Criteria in Metropolitan Lima

International evidence has been positioning the built environment as an active component of the development of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); nevertheless, a gap persists in the empirical quantification of that relationship and, above all, in its dimensional hierarchization, a gap that becomes more pronounced in urban educational contexts with limited infrastructure such as those in Latin America. Within this framework, and with the aim of contributing empirical evidence to guide design decisions in comparable contexts, the present study analyzed the association between multisensory architecture and the cognitive development of students with ASD at a Special Basic Education Center (CEBE) in San Miguel, Metropolitan Lima, organizing the findings into a dimensional hierarchy that makes it possible to compare the relative strength of each spatial criterion. To address this objective, a non-experimental, cross-sectional, and correlational design was adopted, in which cognitive development was assessed through proxy informants (specifically, immediate family members with daily and sustained contact with the students), given that students with ASD present limitations for standardized verbal self-reporting. On this basis, a sample of 101 proxy informants completed, through the QuestionPro platform, a structured questionnaire of 24 Likert-scale items previously validated by expert judgment, exploratory factor analysis, and internal consistency analysis; inferential analysis was then conducted using Spearman’s rho, in keeping with the non-normal nature of the data. The results revealed a positive and statistically significant association between multisensory architecture and cognitive development, and they further allowed that relationship to be dimensionally ordered: on the built-environment side, physical-spatial conditions reached the greatest magnitude of association, followed by environmental conditions and, lastly, functional conditions; on the cognitive side, concentration emerged as the dimension most sensitive to the environment, followed by self-regulation and accessibility. Taken together, this empirical hierarchization offers architects, educational administrators, and therapeutic teams a practical reference for prioritizing design decisions in contexts with limited infrastructure and, to that extent, contributes to the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11, which connect health with inclusive urban environments.