Rehabilitation Spaces – Architecture for Children with Multiple Disabilities

Supporting the development of children with multiple disabilities and raising the level of their autonomy requires the creation of a safe and inspiring environment. Conditions which it is supposed to provide decide about the effectiveness of the support and, in consequence, of the whole rehabilitation process. Developing the concept of rehabilitation space for children with complex, coupled or multiple disabilities, including intellectual handicap, requires making continuous attempts to answer some fundamental questions: what do we know about the possibilities of rehabilitation, what can we achieve by creating friendly architecture and what features should it possess?The aim of the publication is discussing the idea of creating spaces with the highest level of accessibility for users with a broad spectrum of disabilities. Based on a special school modernization project conducted in cooperation with the students of The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environmental Engineering (Technical University of Lodz), the Author discusses the strategies for providing children with the most comfortable and independent ways of taking advantage of the existing architectural facilities. It should be emphasized that the design team was expected to develop solutions allowing the preservation of the existing construction and functions of the school, having made an assumption that all kinds of interference would be restricted by the scarce funds which had been allocated for the transformation of the facility.Due to the fact that the school modernization project was based on the universal design principles, according to the regulations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted on 13th December 2006, the designers resigned from many solutions that are currently considered as being operationally too difficult, costly, unaesthetic or stigmatizing, which in the future should become a new standard of architectural design. The paper presents examples of rational improvements realized by the application of varied, economically and aesthetically attractive design solutions, which could enable the creation of universal spaces. It also analyses the needs of an intuitive user, which can be fulfilled by employing simple methods of clear navigation within the buildings and in their surroundings. The possibilities of eliminating the barriers and supplementing hard-to-access stimuli with stimuli appealing to other senses as well as the use of orientation elements are being discussed. The Author makes an attempt to answer the question: what principles should be followed in the process of transforming degraded and unfriendly buildings and facilities into spaces which would inspire children to develop their maximum individual potential and build the highest possible degree of independence.