AN EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AS MEANS TO ENHANCE WELL BEING IN AUTISM CENTRES

(A CASE STUDY OF JOS, PLATEAU STATE)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
Care of autistic individuals has become a global challenge in recent times. The environment of care for autistic individuals should be conceived and designed with certain architectural features in mind. Studies has shown that the built environment has been used as a means to enhance healing for autism, which includes the use of the shape, color, orientation, height, location, materials and how building components relate to one another. The external environment is also important as this affect their perception of the environment created. Presently there are about six centres that handle autism in Nigeria but none of them adequately meets the requirement for the care of autism. This research sought to evaluate the various architectural features that could have positive impact on well being of autistic children and to examine the individual safety needs of autistic children within a typical treatment environment. The methodology employed includes the study of selected cases in Nigeria using structured interview to collect data from two centres as well as Visual survey and observation of activities. The research findings were analyzed based on the variable highlighted from literature as factors to determine the autism appropriateness of an environment. The result of the analysis discussion revealed that both centres had not been originally designed for the care of autism but efforts had been made to make them suitable though not adequate and required improvements. In conclusion, a design proposal was made for an autism centre incorporating the use of transitional spaces, sensory zoning of activities, use of materials for noise and echo treatment and safety considerations amongst other things identified for the effective care of autism. After due consideration a site was selected at Abuja to demonstrate the features identified in the research.