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Executive Summary
INTRODUCTION executive summary
Design Vision Statement
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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
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
pattern and a sense of knowing of what comes next. People perceive the relationship of the built environment around them, exteroception. By creating overlapping spaces this allow students to find their safety and security within the greater whole. The design must be mindful of geographic stressors in the circulation pattern and look for ways to reduce their impact. Given the important role nature plays in reducing stress, it is critical the design embraces biophilia, the human tendency to be connected to nature so as to create restorative spaces for all users. The design must support the care of the students and staff alike. The design of the building should support the reduction of stress. It needs to support healing in every sense.
As we develop the design of the therapeutic center, there are nine approaches we have explored in the research to further
SENSORY LOADING
GEOGRAPHIC STRESSORS TRANSITIONS
BIOPHILIA OVERLAPPING
CARE understand their architectural implications. To optimize care, health intelligence and consultation is important to ensure student, parent, staff, and teachers are unified in the goals of treatment. If students and families are engaged in goal setting, there is a greater probability of success. Goal setting needs to be clearly understood and easily achieved. Areas for consultation and family education are required to support health literacy. OT/PT spaces and courtyards provide small challenges such as ramps, textures, level changes as easily achievable goals.
Students with diverse abilities need the necessary tools to accomplish everyday tasks. Assistive technologies and adaptive education tools give the students the ability to be able to focus on their education in their skill set and move forward learning without boundaries. Storage and fitting zones need to be identified in the new therapeutic center as this is an area that is growing each year.
Day-to-day stress is significantly higher for special education teachers because there are multiple services required, multiple individual student needs, learning at different levels with different styles. The new facility requires dedicated teacher and staff wellness zones. Teacher work areas and lounges can benefit from access to nature and natural views directly near by with areas to walk in nature to reduce stress. Teachers will also have access to quiet rooms to collect their thoughts and calm throughout the day.
Many students with special needs are stronger visual learners. Images can be powerful to them and stick in their long-term memories far better that descriptions can. Visual clutter can be disruptive to learning and confusing to students. Consistent clear visual clues reduce stress and improve wayfinding. Consolidating
INTRODUCTION executive summary
HEALTH INTELLIGENCE & CONSULTATION
VISUAL CLUTTER
NATURAL LIGHTING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES & ADAPTIVE EDUCATION PROCESS
MOVEMENT
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING
TEACHER & STAFF WELLNESS
NUTRITION
ACOUSTICS visual stimuli in one area of the classroom can limit distractions and help students focus on learning. Color is a key component of visual messaging and neutral colors create calm and grounded-ness. A color palette inspired by nature can be timeless and support biophilic stress reduction.
Exercise can improve mood and self-esteem, increase mental alertness while reducing anxiety. The benefits of movement are widely documented, including increased health, improved comprehension, increased self-perception, and extended endurance. The new facility will provide a variety of spaces that encourage movement and exercise, both planned and spontaneous. Outdoor environments such as courtyards, playgrounds, play fields, and a site perimeter walking loop will make movement fun.
Diet, when coupled with exercise, are important components of a therapeutic approach to care. Proper nutrition can stabilize and minimize mood swings. Lifestyle, culture, and knowledge are sometimes the cause of poor nutrition. The new facility can demonstrate how nutrition impacts behavior and health in a variety of spaces including life skills, demonstration kitchen spaces, and cafeterias. An office for a nutritionist has been included in the project adjacent to the preparation kitchen to encourage healthy eating at the facility.
Some students maybe sensitive to different lighting and acoustical conditions. Natural lighting, artificial lighting, and acoustics are design elements given particular attention within the new facility. Solar shadow studies and design for daylighting will maximize natural lighting and minimize direct
solar gain. Average classrooms can be zoned artificial lighting to provide a variety of lighting conditions in the classrooms and educational areas. Sensory rooms will be equipped for light therapy with multiple color lamps. Acoustics can be measures and exterior envelope construction can be tuned to reach the right level of exterior noise resistance based on measured frequencies. Sounds masking can help muffle and focus concentration. Extensive research in acoustics has been documented to promote wellness. Students will have a variety of choices and can self-select environments that are most conducive to their moods and learning styles.
An overarching goal for the Therapeutic Center is for the architecture to support the reduction of environmental stress
for all users. A parent coming with their child to the center for the first time needs to feel supported, comforted, and hopeful. The lobby is the first space to establish the calming arrival sequence. It should be the kind of space that allows everyone to catch their breath before their next steps. Classrooms are the core of the center and should provide adaptable spaces to control the surrounding environment. Flexible seating and moveable furniture allow students and teachers to reset the classroom for different activities. Communication can be stressful, and consultation spaces need to provide calming and peaceful environments. The setting needs to feel secure for both families and therapists.
Corridors are the main arteries of any facility and transitions to and from spaces can be stressful. Corridors can foster an opportunity for social engagement and exploration with clear wayfinding. To avoid visual clutter, storage of assistive technology needs to identified off corridors and in transition zones. A variety of spaces to work on gross motor and fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, and just letting off excess energy. Exercise rooms, gymnasiums, and OT/ PT/rehabilitation spaces provide a space to for these activities and need to have the ability to control lighting and acoustics to support students trying to achieve sensory equilibrium. Multipurpose rooms are similar in requirements but also need flexible furniture to allow the room to be reset for educational training, general meetings, intervention, and therapy. Sensory rooms have multiple controls to adjust lighting and acoustics to offer a playful and soothing environment. Sensory can happen in a quiet corner of a classroom and in specialty designed spaces that can we scheduled by the educators.
Ultimately, the importance of designing a therapeutic center for education is inclusion and understanding. All of the factors mentioned herein, will help everyone. We are all part of a greater collective of neuro and physically diverse individuals. We all have our challenges big and small. The design factors are a way to support everyday life for every individual. It is just that these design factors will help these students and educators more. Impact is critical and memorable. Being impactful sets the foundation for success. For the design to make a positive impact, it must restore and promote dignity. It must support nurturing and caring for the individual. The therapeutic center must give these students equal standing to give them every opportunity every other student has.
