Children’s Mental Healthcare Facilities
Stantec converted the landing of each feature staircase into an interior ‘treehouse’. They promote different types of play as therapy, while assisting with social skills training.
IMPORTANCE OF PLAY
Play is one of the primary ways that children learn. Play helps them develop cognitive skills, motor skills, language, and social and emotional skills. The pleasure of play results in repetition and mastery, which in turn creates a sense of achievement and confidence. In its programme for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, EOK promotes the words of Plato: ‘You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.’ Achievement must be measurable in order to instil motivation and foster self-esteem. The team developed an interactive design that not only enables staff and families to track children’s progress, but also allows children to track their own progress and celebrate the joy of every small success.
Memory is about leaving a legacy. It is about designing space that has a positive impact on the children, but also enables them to leave a positive imprint for those to come. By allowing these three themes to guide our design for children with ASD, we also created facilities that would be beneficial, nurturing, and healing, for children with a variety of challenges. As A.J. Paron-Wildes (an advocate for making interior environments places of healing), has noted: ‘When you design for autism, the general population benefits.’ So, where did the treehouse fit into these three themes of Play, Achievement, and Memory? EOK celebrates the successes of children with ASD and other
challenges with awards, including: l The Little Acorn Award for clients under six who have shown determination and dedication in achieving goals with family participation.
l The Branching Out Award for clients over six who have demonstrated advancement in extra-curricular activities and camaraderie.
l The Mighty Oak Award for former clients over 16 who are mentors, role models, and ambassadors for young people with disabilities.
l The Tall Tree Award to recognise EOK’s ambassadors in the community.
l The Deep Roots Award for outstanding corporate supporters and ambassadors.
The Respite Entrance with its ‘cool-touch’ fireplace.
A SYMBOL OF ALL THREE THEMES Building on EOK’s tree-related awards, the design team saw the treehouse as a symbol of all three themes – Play, Achievement, and Memory, so Stantec converted the landing of each feature staircase into an interior treehouse. These new spaces serve not only as a place for children to rest after climbing stairs, but also as a memorable place to play, and to celebrate their achievements. If this treehouse is so much more than a stair landing, thought EOK’s CEO, Bridget Fewtrell, it must be accessible for all EOK children, so we designed a green chairlift that unfolds like a leaf to facilitate access by all children regardless of their ability. We also configured the treehouse to allow both physical and visual interaction from above or below. The treehouse became a symbol of EOK’s approach to sensory design for children with ASD, with views from its platform to an outdoor solar calendar that provides positive distraction and engagement, provoking curiosity and problem-solving. ‘The Treehouse’ also promotes different types of play as therapy, while assisting with social skills training.
AN INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT This approach inspired the design of an interactive environment that builds on each child’s strengths, nurturing children with ASD as well as all other Erinoak clients. What is understood about ASD is that it is complex, varying from one individual to another. Some children benefit from greater sensory
stimulation, while others have severe and anxious reactions to it. The challenge of processing sensory signals, however, is common to all children with ASD. Key sensory design and planning principles were thus incorporated into the Treehouse and throughout each facility – from concept to detail. These principles include minimising distractions where appropriate, while providing positive distractions where beneficial, incorporating rest areas along circulation routes, and the use of gradual transitions. Unique features such as an ‘I Spy’ mini-
treehouse space provide an opportunity for social skills training, as well as ‘brain teasers’. Focused distractions, such as a solar calendar on the courtyard wall, are not overwhelming, allowing children to transition and progress. Some individual activities focus on technology to help with communication. This is balanced with therapeutic play that ranges from individual to group activities to gain physical, social, and emotional capabilities for coping and communication.
THE TREEHOUSE AND PLAY In the design of each of the three new facilities we emphasised the value of play as central to the social, educational, physical, and emotional development of each child. A large central courtyard, a generous outdoor therapeutic play area at ground floor level, and an extensive 3,400 ft2 outdoor play area on Level 2 of each two-storey facility, provide areas for different types of play known to benefit the social, physical, and emotional progress of children with ASD. All are easily observable from any point in the gardens, as well as from key group rooms within the facilities. We incorporated easily observable areas in
order to monitor progress in ‘Solitary play’. This includes activities such as colouring, painting, birdwatching, water and sand activities, and puzzles. We accommodated spaces for ‘Parallel play’, which focuses on encouraging children to gradually move closer to each other over time as they become more comfortable playing together. We designed areas with table tops, an Ant Farm structure, and stepping stones, to address this need. The design team enabled ‘Associative play’, which includes activities
THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2016 21
©Stantec
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