Designing Child Care for a Handicapped Community

The National Children's Center

Abstract

In 1958, a group of parents in Washington, D.C. joined together to organize a school for their multihandicapped children/children with physical handicaps, mental retardation, emotional disturbances, and sensory impairments. The National Children's Center, now serving over 300 people, has decided to build a new facility to meet the growing demands of the handicapped community in the metropolitan Washington area. The new building is to enter into construction i 1990. The 46,000 square foot project will house three major programs: early intervention, preschool, and adult services for clients whose ages range from six months to 60 years. Using the family unit as a basis for design, the new building features spaces that range in scale from small classroom "houses" for the smallest, most dependent members of the community, to large indoor activity areas that function as a "town square" meeting place for groups within each program. The fine tuning of such details as color, climate control, light, acoustics, and interior surfaces will also important be aspects of the design of this building. The uniqueness of this project dictates the need for an ongoing analysis of its effectiveness and efficiency to ensure its success.