- Title
- The design of a special needs school: for children affected by trauma associated with HIV and AIDS in Schauderville, Gqeberha
- Creator
- Felton, Mae Sarah
- Subject
- School buildings -- Design and construction
- Subject
- AIDS (Disease) -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Subject
- Children with disabilities -- Education -- Port Elizabeth
- Date Issued
- 2021-12
- Date
- 2021-12
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/58838
- Identifier
- vital:60171
- Description
- HIV and AIDS has been a long-standing and growing pandemic worldwide, but particularly in the context of South Africa. As a result, a pattern of trauma noticeably follows individuals, families and communities, and especially impacts on learners and their experience within the education system. Conventional school environments and buildings often become unaccommodating, harsh and overly-stimulating for learners with traumatic backgrounds and stress. Special needs schools address different disorders and conditions separately, and accommodate a variety of unique demands through teaching interventions and, more importantly, through architecture. This treatise aimed to break away from institutional and conventional architecture by applying theories on child development and architecture, the psychology of space, sensory architecture and trauma-informed design. This treatise positioned itself in empathy and wellness, with concern for the psychological experience of environments for learners, demonstrated through special needs schools, which addressed trauma associated with HIV and AIDS. Hence, this building type was explored to deinstitutionalise educational environments, to identify and address these learners’s specific needs. In realising an architectural intervention with reactive and therapeutic intent, the type of trauma and the relative experiences which triggered it needed to be understood and used to inform and shape comprehensive buildings and environments. This treatise, and the conclusions drawn from it, intended to guide and inform a principle typology and model for future projects of the same nature. As the first of its type, the special needs school location was in Gqeberha and in close proximity to Livingstone Hospital, where the HIV and AIDS cases were the highest. It was situated within the residential zone and schooling district of Schauderville, on the existing site of Adolph Schauder Primary School. The opportunities and challenges in and around this site, along with design principles based on the adopted theories informed an architectural intervention which challenged conventional schooling and design applications in favour of a more empathetic and considerate relationship between learners and architecture.
- Description
- Thesis (MArch) -- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology, School of Architecture, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (57 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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NMU School of Architecture
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Felton, Sarah_216204283_The Design of a Special Needs School (2).pdf | 149 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |