Designing a Space for Autistic Children in Shiraz with the Approach of the Influence on Education and Treatment

Islamic azad university of shiraz

Project idea

Children with autism always try to separate themselves from others. They live in a different world of us, a world that they can only understand. They live in a closed world from our point of view, they are not willing to come out of it. The main concept of this project is based on the theory that they live in a cube and our main goal is to remove them from within the cube. This cube must be broken to eventually reach out to the environment.

Project description

Like any other human being, individuals with special needs have a close interaction with the environment which is an inseparable component of architecture. Architecture as a profession is responsible for creating environments which suit all people with different needs and it shouldn't focus just on hospitals, educational centers and places for leisure activities.
Individuals with autism are part of the society and shouldn't be discriminated due to the developmental and neurological disorders that they are born with and architecture is responsible to create a suitable space for them.
Although today, the world has a better understanding toward this disorder, still these individuals and their families are not receiving enough social support. Due to high prevalence of autism, the new researches show that lack of specialized architectural methods is one of the main problems the architects face while working in this field. This has led to some unscientific and unprofessional works. Especially in Iran where most education spaces are not standardized and have been created by changing residential buildings to these centers. The main goal of this research is to fix these deficits through introducing a basic framework of instructions for the architectural designing of a suitable space for autistics patients.

Technical information

The purpose of this cycle is to remove children from the private environment, and prepare them for entry into the public environment (community).
At the beginning, they will be provided with a single-person training unit to stay in their private space and feel secure in that location.These children are learning little to get out of their private environment. At a higher stage, it will be possible to socialize with other children. This process will help them find theway to enter the community and be able to face less tensions in facing other people.