Sensory Design in Educational Buildings: Elementary School Inclusive for Children with ASD

Designing a school turned out to be far more enriching for me as an architect and as a person; it is a process that investigates the deep connection with one's childhood memories and helps in realizing how much impact the school environment has had on shaping the people we become. (In his book The Child, The City, The Artist) Aldo Van Eyck says: " In my beginning is my end … In my end is my beginning." The design of a school should be addressed as a place where childhood memories are created, where our understanding of play, social interaction, independence and awareness of ourselves and our architectural surrounding starts. It adds responsibility on the architect to make that space a perfect platform for learning, curiosity and creativity. As a child, going to school is a long process that may hold many obstacles. We can't imagine what it is like for someone on the Autism Spectrum. One to every 160 children in the world and one in every 59 children in the US are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD. This high rise in the number of ASD diagnosis should urge architects to think of providing the infrastructure for those children to grow and adequately engage in their communities. This group of schoolchildren have the ability to blend with other neuro-typical children if the school was supportive of this merge both administratively and architecturally. Coming from a country that does not have enough support for such children was a big motivation for my thesis. I felt that we as architects can play a major role in supporting them and even raising awareness about ASD. In my thesis I have designed a school encouraging the inclusivity of students with ASD where the architecture facilitates the co-existence of two groups of children that have different yet complementary capabilities. It is my firm belief that an architecture that can embrace the challenges of such a group of children enriches the social and intellectual growth of both groups simultaneously.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Hariri, Leen Nazih

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Gartner, Howard Scott

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jones, James R.
• Becker, Edward Gentry
• Zellner Bassett, Paola A.

• Autism
• Sensory Design
• Inclusive Design

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:26419

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99095