A DESIGNED SCHOOL FOR AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Abstract

““…within that four walls, I see, I hear, I touch, I feel……” “…我自闭。。。 但我也能有自己的空间。。。” It would be frustrating for any parents of autistic children or even anyone to find that there are none suitable school for autistic children. Many may think it may not be necessary, as they thought any school building would be suitable for them. Think again. This thesis aims to reinvestigate the inadequacy of current schools for autistic individual and how we can design ‘healthy’ spaces for autistic children. The term, “Designs” may be a word of luxury for such children. It is rather a space of necessity to minimize the behavioural outburst during process of learning and teaching. Coupled with substantiation from preliminary research into architectural design guidelines and the site conditions, this foray seeks to discover the synergy between architecture design and different spectrum of autistic children. In that light, this study will hopefully become a platform where future designers can made improvement on these methods to design for autistic individuals. The initial writings will serve to highlight some basic understanding on autistic children regarding the differences between hyper and hypo, followed by an investigation on the site conditions and analysis. Then the study will take a step back to investigate how the school can be designed with a balance both internally and externally.