School for children with special needs-Autism

The main purpose of the selected topic for Diploma Thesis lies in the research, and accurate study of the needs that the city of Ferizaj has to be equipped with an educational institution for children with special needs, which in this case we are dealing with a neurobiological disorder-Autism.

The whole design process begins and ends while respecting the connection between needs, context, and form. So we cannot create a function or form that does not correspond to a certain context, or we cannot invent a form that is not related to a certain function. By this we mean that one conditions and enables the other. Design theme is an Educational Institution for children with special needs which for analogy has the School as a basic institution but also adding other spaces for which autists children need. The basic concept of developing such a design lies in the shape of the location and the urb-architectural approach since the building was created adapting to the shape of the location and surrounding context. The building positioned in this location would directly affect the general condition of autistic children and would bring positive results due to its closeness to other surrounding schools. It would be important for the children of this institution to be socialized and to establish relationships with their coevals so they do not feel that they belong to another category of children, but only to another group that has specific requirements. The closeness to the nursing high school is extremely positive because the students of this school are constantly learning and have knowledge of the disorders that Autism brings and in this way they would know how to approach a child who belongs to this spectrum. The most influential architectural factor in the emotional changes of autists is the acoustics and organization of the interior space, followed by lighting, colors, textures, etc. For autists, colors provide the most powerful way to communicate. Through colors many of them have learned the alphabet, numbers or even the meaning of many objects. Frequent changes of light or increased intensity can affect as a visual factor which produces stress and causes hypersensitivity in autists. For this reason, through the articulating elements in the facade of the building, we have managed to control the amount of light entering the building.