Listen
A deep listening session: your sensory profile, your routines, and the specific moments your current home makes hard. No diagnosis is required.
New York homes designed for how you sense the world.
Shell Li, AIA leads architects, therapists, and psychologists in designing residences that calm the nervous system and feel extraordinary.
A licensed architect. Berkeley and UK/CoD trained. Guest critic at Syracuse, Parsons and Pratt. A mother who learned, from her own son, what a room can do.
Six disciplines. One room that finally holds you.
Every design begins with a person's individual sensory profile: how light filters through a window, how a surface feels underfoot, how a room sounds when it's occupied.
Our approachArchitecture
Shell Li, AIA leads every project: plan, section, finish selection, engineer coordination, and the construction that follows.
Psychology
Psychologists who specialize in sensory processing create the profile before a single wall moves.
Occupational and behavioral therapy
Therapists translate regulation, routine, and transition into the way rooms connect.
DIRFloortime® Expert
Early childhood development specialist with expertise in supporting children with special needs.
Holistic medicine
Practitioners who think about sleep, light, and circadian rhythm shape the hours a home keeps.
Special education
Special education teachers and PDA-informed advisors keep children, and their choices, in the room.
Four ways we work.
Sensory Interior Design
Concept-to-completion residential design calibrated to your sensory profile.
ExploreConsultations & Assessments
A targeted 30-minute consult, a comprehensive residential assessment, or a full sensory environment evaluation.
Explore
Professional Advisory
Neuroinclusive consulting for architects, designers, educators, and institutions.
Explore
Signature Product Line
Sensory-friendly furniture, adaptive equipment, and wearables developed with the neurodivergent community.
Explore
A Berkeley-trained architect whose practice grew from raising a son on the spectrum.
Shell Li, AIA holds a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a Master of Architecture from the University of Kentucky. After her son's autism diagnosis, she built a practice dedicated to spaces that serve the full range of human sensory experience. She has managed and taught at the Syracuse University NYC Architecture Program and served as a guest critic at both Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute.
- Licensed Architect, AIA
- B.A. Architecture, UC Berkeley
- M.Arch, University of Kentucky
- Guest Critic, Parsons School of Design
- Guest Critic, Pratt Institute
- Managed and taught, Syracuse University NYC Architecture Program
Three steps to a sensory home.
Draw
Shell Li, AIA and the team draw a complete plan: light, acoustics, materials, storage, and the flow between rooms, calibrated to the profile.
Build
White-glove design-build with trusted contractors, no bidding, one point of contact, and transition support for children while the work is under way.
We design for the nervous system first: 
What we calibrate.
Light
Where it enters, how it is filtered, and how it dims through the day. Light is the first thing a sensitive nervous system notices.
Sound
Acoustic felt, heavy drape, wool underfoot. A room that absorbs instead of reflects lets a mind calm down.
Texture
The finish that meets the skin: boucle, oiled oak, lime plaster. Chosen by hand, never by catalog.
Air
Ventilation, temperature, and materials screened by a professional so the air itself is part of the design.
Flow
How rooms connect, where decompression lives, where a routine begins and ends. The plan is the quietest instrument we have.
Drawn with the community. In development now.
The product line
Sensory-Friendly Ergonomic Chair
A chair that welcomes fidgeting, scaled for growing children and made from natural, durable materials.
In development
Sensitive Headwear
One piece of headwear for light and sound sensitivity, designed to be stylish and socially engaging.
In development
Adaptive Utensils
Utensils with larger contoured handles for limited grip strength, designed to make eating easier and more joyful.
In development
What to know before you reach out.
Do I need a formal diagnosis to work with you?
No diagnosis required. We work with adults and families who experience sensory sensitivity, whether or not they carry a formal label. What matters is how you actually live in your space.
Where do you serve clients?
We work with residential clients within a two-hour drive of New York City. Remote 30-minute consultations are available for clients anywhere.
What is the difference between the 30-minute consultation and full interior design?
The 30-minute consultation ($250) focuses on a specific design challenge: a bedroom, a sensory trigger, a storage problem. Full Sensory Interior Design covers your entire home from initial assessment through completed build.
Who makes up your design team?
Shell Li, AIA leads every project with a multidisciplinary team that includes psychologists, therapists, holistic medicine practitioners, and special education teachers. Each discipline contributes to a design that serves the whole person.
Can you manage the renovation and construction?
Yes. Our White-Glove Design-Build service adds full project management with our trusted contractor network, eliminating the bidding process. We stay with you through every phase, including specialized transition support for neurodivergent children during construction.
Do you offer consultations in languages other than English?
Yes. We offer consultations in English and Chinese Simplified (中文简体).
Reserve a conversation with Shell Li, AIA.
We work with a limited number of families, individuals, and institutions in the New York metro area each year.