Specialist facilities
To garner the necessary support
for the project, we needed to engage new and existing supporters who appreciated the long-term vision of the charity. The legacy of The CICC will be thousands, potentially even millions, of lives changed for the better, and the group of people responsible for that impact reaches beyond those physically building the Centre or working in it. A group of generous
philanthropists, corporate sponsors, and supporters led by John Caudwell, who we affectionately call our Legacy Circle, are the ones who have made this vision a reality. In particular, John Caudwell’s confidence and belief in the vision for the CICC has seen him generously match-fund every donation made towards the project, and personally donate in excess of £10 million to this important project. He says: “I have been deeply affected by the families I’ve met whose lives have been devastated by autism, and rebuilt thanks to the support of the charity. I am proud to support what is set to be a landmark development in the provision of services for the millions of people who are affected by autism on a daily basis. Caudwell Children was founded on the principle that by offering a transparent charity to donors we can provide a more efficient service to our beneficiaries. The Caudwell International Children’s Centre embodies this principle, with Trudi and the team identifying the most efficient way to help as many children affected by autism as possible.”
STEP 5: CONSTRUCTION Having identified the building’s function and general arrangements, we challenged architect, James Pass (C4 Consulting Ltd), with realising our vision for an innovative design which would inspire all of the building’s users and supporters of the charity. Positioning on the site was also crucial. To reduce solar glare during the day, and protect the sensitive areas from being overlooked, the building was positioned on North/South axis, flanked by protected woodland and the building’s car parking to the south. By working closely with James Pass, early concepts of a ‘dual-winged’ building which accommodated the internal courtyards were developed to incorporate the stepped amphitheatre style to enable a prevalence of natural light and the flowing lines and curves of my earlier sketches. With the introduction of two hyperbolic paraboloid roof structures, the final concept was complete, and coincidentally formed the appearance of a butterfly – which is also the charity’s logo, as chosen by the beneficiaries, who stated that Caudwell Children’s support made them feel like they could fly and do what every they wished; made them feel free, ‘akin to a butterfly’.
16 THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2018
Evidence, including studies by The Kingwood Trust and Helen Hamlyn Centre, supported our theory that adding curves to the Centre’s circulation strategy was a natural progression to aid the children in their visual spatial processing, helping them move from space to space and to minimise anxiety. As well as aiding the children to navigate the building, the curvilinear design also removes any potential perceived ‘institutional’ appearance – a key part of the original design intent. “Main circulation corridors have a clear width of 2,000 mm to 2,500 mm to the highly trafficked public spaces to facilitate multiple wheelchair users crossing each other in opposing directions,” adds James Pass. “All outward opening doors are recessed, so that they do not project into the corridor space, to reduce/remove the likelihood of collision or anxiety flares.”
The reception area within the striking new building.
BUILDING WORK STARTS With the location, the design, and (some of) the funding in place, we took the decisive step to begin construction, confident that further support would develop, and that ‘Build it and they will come’. As with the formation of the project and design team, the tender process for the main contractor had to include an organisational empathy for our mission, and a demonstrable sharing of values in the person- centred approach to the design. Ultimately, Buckingham Group Contracting was chosen, and in March 2016 we broke ground and began construction of the shell. With progress on the shell continuing, focus reverted to the fit-out, and in particular several areas key to the function of the building.
CIRCULATION AND NAVIGATION James Pass said: “Traditionally, buildings with rectilinear horizontal circulation spaces make use of straight lines and corners to navigate space. While cost-efficient, this approach produces harsh, right-angled corners and hidden entrances or junctions. It was identified at an early stage that such common design constraints would be unacceptable in the CICC, as this would create numerous potential triggers for anxiety flares for the building’s users – due, primarily, to a lack of visibility around corners, and the potential for meeting head-on with other users. In addition, hard corners would also represent a potential injury risk.”
VISUAL REASSURANCE It is widely understood and recognised that people with autism can find changes in routine and social interaction challenging, and so the design of the physical environment at the CICC had to complement the preparation work that would be undertaken to minimise the potential impact of the new experience of visiting the building. Wide, curved corridors with high ceilings and long lines of
sight provide an open feel, and vision panels in transition doors or into public spaces give the building’s users time to assess each space before entering. The Centre’s 12 individual assessment suites posed a specific challenge – to offer the visual reassurance of clear windows in, or next to, the entry points, while being able to provide the privacy required to undertake clinical assessments. With the obvious solution of blinds presenting both safety and maintenance or operational issues, finally an alternative was sourced via the use of a switchable adhesive film, operated by a simple electrical switch to control its opacity – turning it from clear to translucent. It was retrofitted to the vision panels of each suite, and offered the privacy and visual reassurance we required.
ACOUSTIC MANAGEMENT For people without auditory or sensory challenges, poor acoustic management is – at the very least – an annoyance, but for a large minority of the population who suffer some sort of sensory impairment, can cause physical pain or severe emotional discomfort. Therefore, for the benefit of all the building’s users, special attention was given to the acoustic treatment of all spaces within the CICC. Christopher Lalley, senior consultant at Philip Dunbavin Acoustics, said: “Acoustic design was considered from the outset, with the consultant appointed early in the design. Reverberation within spaces was
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