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Children’s Mental Healthcare Facilities


where taking turns with games emphasises the idea of give/take/share, through features such as the rubber wheeling circuit and the group swing. ‘Cooperative play’, which involves role playing and exchanging ideas, is fostered in spaces designed for baking together indoors, creating a garden by having different roles, drawing murals on horizontal or vertical surfaces, or dramatising stories around the Respite Centre campfire.


OUTDOOR SEATING AND A CLIMBING WALL


In addition to indoor and outdoor play areas, the design team incorporated playful elements throughout the facilities. These include an outdoor seating bench reminiscent of an abstract amphibian, large exterior graphics of sports figures with and without mobility aids, a 3D representation of the interior climbing wall on the façade, and ‘mini’ treehouses that include activities such as wall games at the Oakville site, and a telescope for trainspotting at the Mississauga site. The Respite programme at the Brampton site allows children with a wide range of communication and physical challenges to spend a weekend in a camp-like environment, with arts, crafts, and outdoor campfire stories, away from their families. This not only evokes a camp-like experience, but also provides evidence of the benefit that gradual transition from individual to small group socialisation can have on children with ASD. The design team enhanced this kind of progress with the layout of the new Respite Centre, with its quiet bedroom wings that transition into the common areas where baking, arts and crafts, and storytime occur, overlooking an outdoor therapeutic garden.


THE TREEHOUSE AND ACHIEVEMENT A Going to School Experience:We planned the IBI department to minimise distraction where children need to focus, avoiding views directly into the central courtyard from classrooms and group rooms, while providing views to the outdoors, where cueing encourages outdoor recreation and therapy. Studies have shown that children with ASD have improved attention spans when the focus is on one activity. We let this and EOK’s experience guide us in the design of the washroom experience, where electronic monitors help instruct children how to wash their hands without distraction. Similarly,


Focused distractions, such as a solar calendar on the courtyard wall, ‘are not overwhelming, allowing children to transition and progress’.


Key participants in the EOK project


Architect of Record: Stantec Architecture. Project design compliance: Parkin Architects. Interiors: Stantec Architecture. Structural: Stantec Consulting. Mechanical/Electrical: Crossey Engineering. Landscape: Vertechs Design. Custom art: Art.Work.


Contractor: Bondfield Construction Co.


we located magnetic and interactive wallboards to avoid competing with other activities – to help children focus on the task or play event at hand. We incorporated brightly-coloured ‘cubbies’ to facilitate exercises that improve working memory.


Environment, Behaviour, and Consequences: The structured approach of the IBI department for children with ASD establishes a relationship between environment, behaviour, and consequences, a key educational concept for children with ASD. Building organisation is designed to support this concept. The climbing wall of the Gym is readily visible from the Main Street as children walk to the IBI department, reminding them of the benefit of play here if they first do their schoolwork. Similarly, views to the Treehouse and central courtyard help staff remind children of the rewards awaiting them


after they complete their classroom activity or therapy session. We also designed the facilities so that achievement can be measured through details such as numbered steps on the Feature Stair/Treehouse, low-contrast simple patterned flooring in the Main Street, clinical pods for gait assessment to be measured, and a climbing wall. We created a unique solar calendar in the central courtyard, to challenge both children and families as they learn to interpret it.


RESPECTING AND CHALLENGING COLOUR THEORY In order to motivate and encourage children to progress, we incorporated, with EOK’s encouragement, a warm and welcoming environment where colour is not something to be feared. In doing this, we respected some, and yet challenged other, aspects of colour theory for children with ASD. Studies such as one published in LiveScience indicate that children with autism may be more likely to have synesthesia, where senses can be mixed. For example, they might see numbers in colours. They may hear tastes and shapes. Other research shows that colours in the blue- green range, and the avoidance of complex patterns, create the most calming environment for children with ASD.


The design for Erinoak strives for a balance


between research and experiential evidence. We added a variety of colours, yet avoided bright primary hues to provide a more universal uplifting environment. This addresses the varied


A 3D representation of the interior climbing wall on the façade. OCTOBER 2016


22 THE NETWORK


A 3D artist’s impression of an outdoor therapeutic play area.


©Stantec


©Stantec


©Stantec


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