Dinah Rabson

Accessibility oftentimes comes as an afterthought when designing a new space, marginalising the disabled community, and strengthening the deep-set stigmatisation against differently abled people. A mindset shift is needed within society as a whole and in particular within the architectural field, to fully embrace universal design and merge the abled and disabled communities in a space that focuses on the individual user’s experience. Focusing on a child with a disability, they are in need of an independent identity, a sense of control, and autonomy within their environment. To understand how to achieve this through an architectural intervention, this project explores the experience of children with disabilities, noting their challenges and difficulties both within their physical environment as well as socially and emotionally. The design proposition uses this as a guide to create a space that overcomes these challenges through architectural interventions that foster a social change.

With this knowledge, one sees the importance of the rehabilitative journey including three aspects - physical, social and emotional- in an integrated process that develops a foundation that can be built upon. This is done through using architecture as a tool for healing - by focusing on phenomenological ideals that place a vulnerable community at the forefront and focuses on the individualised experience. In merging architectural elements from medical facilities, psychological facilities and social centres, a new typology is created as a rehabilitative social centre. With contextual analysis the research directly links this proposed program with its site through their mutual need for upliftment, renewal and a cultural shift. The site analysis explores existing efforts for the rehabilitation of Louis Botha and its surrounding areas and proposes a way for the new building to fit into this, and further, to contribute to it.