Architecture for adults with Autism | Case study of ALFAA

ALFAA Assisted Living For Autistic Adults Case Study

Contents: 1)

Introduction

2)

Objective

3)

Assisted living residence

4)

Routine

5)

Activity Center

6)

Conversation with patient Ganesh

7)

Observations and incidents

8)

Conclusion

About the organisation: ALFAA is an organization which provides education and takes care of adults who have autism. ALFAA stands for ‘Assisted Living For Autistic Adults’, and is based out of Bangalore. The organization was founded by Ruby Singh in 2009 after witnessing the poor state of facilities for autism in India, while searching for an assisted living for her own son. Currently it has two buildings used as an assisted living, and another two for a school or activity center called ‘ALFAA Pilot Project’, which is a few hundred meters away from the residences. Both the residences and activity center buildings are homes that have been repurposed and modified to accommodate adults with autism, and have not been designed specifically for adults with autism.

Group photo at the Activity Center. The patients are wearing purple while the special-educators/caretakers are wearing yellow-green shirts.

ALFAA Pilot Project (Activity Center) No 9, Omega Avenue, Mathrushree Layout, MARAGONDANAHALLI MAIN ROAD, TC Palya, KR Puram, Bangalore - 560036

My stay at ALFAA: I had stayed at ALFAA’s assisted living facility for 5 days (from 8/2/2022 to 12/2/2022), in order to better understand the behaviour, needs, difficulties and preferences of people with autism. For these 5 days, I lived in the same rooms the patient and caretakers also stayed in, and followed the same daily routine they followed. I spent a lot of time interacting with the patients, caretakers and other staff, which has helped me and our entire group have a much better understanding of how an assisted living for adults with autism could be designed.

Objective of this case study: ●

To have a better understanding of autism by livin

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To understand how an assisted living is run and w adults with autism.

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To have a more holistic view, by understanding o facilities such as the livelihood of caretakers and dealing with social aspects like the perception of

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Observe design modifications made to the existin caretakers and other staff.

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Draw inferences from these learnings which may

ng and interacting with people with autism.

what are the requirements of a assisted living for

other aspects that contribute to overseeing such other staff, supporting the parents or guardians, autism among common people etc.

ng structure to accommodate adults with autism, their

y be applied in the design process.

Site location and neighbourhood: ● ● ● ●

The residence and the activity center are located in the outskirt Bangalore city.

It is in an underdeveloped area.

The Activity Center is about 200m away from the residence.

While there is not much noise from traffic, there are many build constructed in the surrounding area which causes a lot of distur time to time.

● ●

Route from ALFAA to the nearest metro station

There a hence t The nea take ap the city

ts of

dings being rbance from

Map of Bengaluru city

are not many nearby recreational spaces like malls, parks etc. and they do have to travel around 5 kms to visit such places. arest train station and metro station are both around 8 kms away and pprox. 20 minutes to reach, making it easy to travel to other parts of y easily.

The residence: ● There are a total of two residences. The picture on the left is of the main one and the one I stayed at. ● There are four patients who stay at this residence along with four caretakers, and other staff. ●

It has 4 floors, and each of the first three floor has 2 bedrooms and a kitchen.

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Other than the first floor, the kitchen rooms in the second and third floors have been converted into bedrooms for staff with the use of screens.

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The first floor has a kitchen and its hall is used for dining.

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The second floor hall is used as a T.V room/Living room.

● The third floor hall is used as an activity area. ● The fourth floor has a terrace and a bedroom.

Staff bedroom: ● This is a part of the first floor hall, which has been converted into a bedroom and study room, with the simple use of a screen. ● The caretaker using this room has quick access to the adjacent rooms where the patients are. ●

The use of screens is a very economical way of changing the use of a space, giving privacy and also acts as guide for navigation for the patients.

T.V room ● Some of the patients enjoy watching music/dance videos, and do this in the evenings along with their caretakers.

Dining hall

Bedroom for patients 2 patients share a bedroom and each bedroom has an adjoining bathroom.

Assisted living Residence plan:

T1

B1

Kitchen/staff bedroom 1

Staff bedroom 2

hall

T2

Sketch of floor plan of residence building

B2

Balcony

Daily routine timetable (Monday t NO.

Timings

1)

7:00 - 8:00 am

Wake up, Brushing, Toilet, Bath, Dress up

2)

8:00 - 9:30 am

Breakfast, medication (for those who need it)

3)

9:30 - 10:00 am

Go to activity center/school and assemble

4)

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

5)

12:30 - 1:00 pm

lunch

6)

1:00 - 2:00 pm

Assemble at activity center again

7)

2:00 - 3:30 pm

Developing fine and gross motor skills (gardening, gym, painting drawing)

8)

3:30 - 5:00 pm

Fun activities like board games, Table tennis. Cleaning activity rooms.

9)

5:00 - 5:30 pm

Snack, Going back to residence

10)

5:30 - 8:00 pm

Free time - Resting in room, watching TV, roaming around

11)

8:00 - 9:00 pm

Dinner, medication (for those who require)

12)

9:00 - 10:00 pm

Free time

13)

10:00 pm

Activity

Prayer -> Exercise/Yoga/Dance in a group -> One on one training with sp

Sleep

to Friday):

y

pecial educators/care takers and personality development

)

Most people with autism feel comfortable following a strict daily routine. Some prefer it as they do not have to think much about what to do. Others who are more severely disabled often do not understand how much and when to do the basic daily activities such as eating, bathing, using the toilet, exercising, and sleeping. This keeps the patients healthy and content.

Saturday: ● Same schedule, but only half-day school (10am to 1pm). ● Rest of the time is free-time.

Sunday: ● Outing (going to shops, malls, parks, temples, playgrounds, restaurants etc.)

After the group session, each patient/student will have a one on one class with a special educator. Each of these classes are held in a separate room to keep the students concentrated and for the best learning outcomes. The teachers keep specific learning goals for each of the students depending on the level of their various skills.

S 1)

Kas

2)

De

3)

Am

4)

Son

5)

Sur

6)

Aje

7)

Rav

Classes at Activity Center:

Special Educator

Class

shmir Sir

Vocational class

evindar Sir

Fine Motor skills

mandeep Ma’am

Academic class

nali Ma’am

Speech Therapy

rendra Sir

Physiotherapy

eeth Sir

Occupational therapy

vindra Sir

Computer

Main area for group activities, ALFAA Pilot Project (Activity Center)

Place for meetings and having snacks

T.V room at the main residence

Computer room for online classes and high functioning individuals

Physiotherapy class/gym

Fine Motor skills class

Van for patients

Miniature shop. The products are made by the patients.

Yoga and meditation group session

Device in occupational therapy

Devices in occupational therapy room

Medicine box for patients. Most of the patients take a medicine that suppresses neurological activity, and calms them down.

The caretakers keep notes on the patients to keep a track of their learning progress, as well as their medication.

Conversation with patient - Ganesh Venk ●

Person with autism who is ‘high functioning’. He is 34 years old.

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He is able to read, write and speak, and understand language well. He ta forgets that he is having a conversation midway. He needs the person ta conversation going and does not come up with topics to talk about on h

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He sometimes starts hallucinating all of a sudden, and gets lost in his dre

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He sometimes does certain repetitive actions which may be seen as ‘we ears, covering his face with his hands and rocking back and forth while s

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Had completed his B.tech from heritage institute of technology Kolkata. left it because he was interested in pursuing a masters degree. He found his colleagues at work. He says, “I don’t talk much, because of this peop

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He performed well at the GATE exam, and got into a college, but failed in his parents then decided that it would be best if he stayed at an assisted

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He says feels comfortable at ALFAA. The only complaints he has are that remote area there is traffic noise from time to time and this irritates him stresses him out.

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He says that his favorite subjects to study are Maths, Science, History an magazine related to these subjects. He said “Yes, I would like a library. A

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Touching those toys with soft texture gives him a ‘fresh feel’.

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I explained the concept of sensory rooms and asked if it would be a good

katraman

akes a while to answer questions, and often alking with him to ask questions to keep the his own.

eam world.

eird’ by neurotypical people, such as flicking his sitting.

He had a entry level engineering job but soon d it very difficult to converse and interact with ple don’t know me well”.

n many of the Master’s level courses. He and d living instead.

t, although the assisted living facility is in a m a lot. Also the staff talking loudly or shouting

nd Geography. He likes reading books and A library with not just kids books”.

d addition, and he said it would be very good.

Residents/patients of the assisted living: Mayank

Saunak Mayank is 23 years old.

He loves eating. He often eats things that are not edible if left on his own. He is unable to speak, read or write. He is currently learning to draw lines, scribble, match colors and pictures. He has a poor sense of navigation and often does not know where to put his plate after eating.

S a a e st w a u w a p o m a m

:

Saunak is 26 years of age. He is very quiet and is afraid to talk especially with trangers. He talks in a whispering voice. He is able to speak commonly used phrases, read and write some words and also solve basic math problems. He faces a lot of difficulty in maintaining his weight and takes thyroxine medication.

Adithya Adithya is 25 years old.

He is unable to speak, read or write, but is able to understand commonly used words, phrases, and hand gestures. He has good motor skills and enjoys activities such as drawing, cutting, playing table-tennis and many more. He has an attraction to powdery substances, so these must be kept out of his reach.

Relevant observations and incidents: ●

One of the caretakers was facing a lot of mental health problems. while simultaneously doing this job. He lashed out in frustration o consistently bad for the past few weeks, and started an argument

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The other caretakers are also deprived of recreational activities, a patients for most of the time. To make up for this they often have loudly with each other in the living rooms and hence cause a lot o

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Some of the patients have very poor navigation, and often aimles the dinner plate for washing etc. After finishing his dinner Mayank the apartment in the opposite direction of the kitchen. This has h follows whichever path a sees first.

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Some patients may have certain attractions which could put them powdery substances and will touch unhygienic things such as garb powder. Mayank ate an air-freshener pellet which was in the bath

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Some of the patients enjoyed standing in the balcony and the terr

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Some patients do not understand the dangers of falling down, or by touching a hot pan, or opening a car door when in motion.

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Some patients do not how much and when to eat, and may over e

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Some patients require assistance in daily activities such as bathing

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Other patients however are a lot more independant, and want mo

. He is also studying for a better career one night after the food quality was t with the cook.

as they must attend to the needs of the e fun by playing loud music and talking of disturbance to some of the patients.

ssly walk around not knowing where to put k takes his plate and wanders off outside happened multiple times. He generally just

m in danger. Adithya has an attraction to bage in the trash bin to get a hold of the hroom. He sometimes also eats soaps.

race, and looking at the view from there. touching fire. They may hurt themselves

eat if left on their own.

g.

ore privacy.

Conclusion:

Staying at an assisted living along with people helped me understand autism a lot better. Dur aware of the various other aspects of assisted li taken into consideration, such as the health and caretakers and special educators, food and nut both residents and staff, the parent’s or guardia perception of autism in the community and so person with autism was very unique and requir care or assistance. The stay at ALFAA has broug excitement into our design project. In addition design process, I hope that this case study emp architects to start and design such assisted livin throughout our country.

with autism at ALFAA has ring the stay I also became iving facilities that must be d wellbeing of the trition, the daily routine of an’s concerns, the o on. I also realized every red a very specific type of ght fresh enthusiasm and to guiding us through the powers parents and ng facilities for autism