INTRODUCTION
executive summary
Design Vision Statement The A.E.R.O. Therapeutic Center will be... • • • •
A supportive, nurturing environment that celebrates students’ achievements, large and small. A warm, welcoming place that fosters independence and learning without boundaries. An inclusive, resilient environment supporting neurodiversity, equity, and dignity. A place to THRIVE for all who cross this THRESHOLD.
What does it mean to be Therapeutic? By definition, therapeutic means to have a beneficial effect for the body and mind. For a school focused on special education, the meaning of therapeutic becomes more encompassing and holistic. A special education facility should aspire to be more than just a place where students with specific needs go to learn but should be a supportive, nurturing environment that celebrates the achievements, large or small while improving the life of everyone who crosses the threshold. When a parent brings their child for their initial evaluation, it is a stressful time. The unknown about the future can be overwhelming. Any therapeutic center for education should be a safe-haven for students; a place where students can focus on their goals for improvement with the comfort of knowing that all other concerns can be pushed aside. It should be a warm welcoming environment that fosters independence and resilience for what their future
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Introduction
may hold while maintaining dignity. Self-regulation and self-reliance should be the goal for anyone. The role of the architecture is to foster that sense of equilibrium to allow student to be at their best. The criteria to evaluate the design is critical to understanding the factors for success. What do we know about the students? What do we know about the staff? Each student has unique challenges. One way to categorize the challenges is to understand basic functions that the students need to be successful, but these functions aren’t always physical. How does the design facilitate the ease of education? Can the design make the efforts of the educators easier? The criteria to begin to solve all of these challenges can be a set of phenomena with the overall goal of reducing stress for students and teachers alike. The importance of reducing stress and self-regulation is critical to the therapeutic approach in that it allows the students to find their own equilibrium move forward with their education. It allows the student to be more receptive to teaching. It creates more engaging environments that foster learning. The challenge with any school is you might have students with different neurodiversities within the same classroom needing different responses to support education. It is imperative for the classroom to be as diverse and flexible as the students. It is this flexibility that will improve education when dealing with students with a wide range of neurodiversities, it is important to consider six fundamental strategies. It will be these strategies that allow the design to be mindful of different conditions and needs and get to the core of being therapeutic. The goal is to develop a campus and classrooms that control the amount of sensory loading differently to allow every student the opportunity to find peacefulness. The design must create an ease of transition from one space to another to create a positive
