Inclusive school "Open World" for 510 students

Belarusian National Technical University - BNTU

Idea projektu

School is an important stage of our life, where we study, socialize, and make friends. Therefore, it should be a universal place. Today, the vast majority of children with special needs are sent to specialized institutions, which makes the process of socialization impossible. The right and effective solution should be considered the creation of an inclusive architectural environment of schools, that is, equally adapted and convenient for all categories of children. The architect's task is to take into account many factors when designing and choose the most successful solution that will primarily contribute to the process of inclusive education, the safety of people in the building, the comfort of teachers and staff, and the socialization of children. The lack of schools providing inclusive education in the country determines the social significance and confirms the relevance of this project. When creating the project, I used the centric composition as a basis, as it facilitates orientation in space. When the image of the building took shape, it served as the basis for creating the logo of the inclusive school - the image of the palm, which embodies both childish carelessness, activity, and support, strength and socialization. The five fingers symbolize the five principles of an inclusive school:
• Non-discrimination;
• respect for the independence and personal independence of a person;
• Accessibility;
• Full inclusion and involvement in society;
• joint (team) work of a teacher, a special teacher, a school administrator, a psychologist, parents and the student himself.

Popis projektu

The pre-project study included an analysis of the territory, a survey of the opinions of teachers and students (presented in the project), a study of the principles of universal design and the characteristics of various population groups. The site is located on a flat area, has no height differences. Most of the buildings next to the site are of medium height (5 floors), with the exception of the dominant buildings, where the height varies from 14 to 25 floors. The transport structure of the site is characterized by the presence of bus stops near the main entrance to the school grounds and from the northern part of the site. When designing the facades of the building, I took into account the architecture that had already developed on the ground.
Main features of the project:
1. Creating a sensory garden. The advantages of this solution are that gardening promotes the development of fine motor skills of the hands, and areas of soil at different heights allow everyone to engage in common activities. In addition, the environmental issue is very important not only in Russia and Belarus, but all over the world. Gardens will help draw attention to this problem from an early age – they are an element of the building's environmental sustainability. And the different decor of flower beds can involve all the senses, including touch and smell. A spiral ramp will provide accessibility to all floors.
2. Simplification of the navigation system. A centric system and color coding are used for this purpose. This is convenient not only for children, but also for people of all ages. There is a reception desk at the entrances, and mnemonics where you can find out the necessary information about the school.
3. The entrances are designed from ground level, all entrances and exits are accessible to people with limited mobility.
4. The spiral ramp around the sensory garden can be used by all categories of the population, in addition, it can serve as an evacuation route.
5. Fire-safe zones and sensory unloading zones are provided in the school.
6. The medical unit has been expanded and supplemented with necessary functions, such as a psychologist, speech therapist, speech pathologist.
7. The exhibition space encourages children's creativity, it is multifunctional and can be used not only to showcase various works of children, but also to conduct trainings and lectures.
8. The school has a library. For convenience, it is divided into zones (quiet, individual and teamwork).

Technické informace

The building has 3 floors. Functional zoning is presented in the project.
The separation of elementary from middle and high schools allows you to separate the streams of children, and if necessary, the space can be combined with the main school building thanks to movable partitions.
The sports, medical, administrative blocks, as well as the dining room with an assembly hall and a library are located in one wing, not far from the main entrance, and can work independently if necessary. The school has 2 elevators and a spiral ramp, which can also be used as an escape route from the building. Each study section has classrooms (up to 5 in one section), recreation facilities, bathrooms, resource centers, sensory unloading areas – a kind of "islands of privacy", escape stairs and fire-safe areas (except for the 1st floor).
The projected building is not a source of environmental pollution.
It provides for the active use of natural building materials (for example, in window frames, doors, decoration, etc.), which are environmentally friendly, economically feasible, do not contain harmful substances, do not harm the ecosystem and perfectly fit architecture into nature.
New high-growing trees, large and small shrubs will be planted to improve the ecological and visual characteristics of the projected area.
One of the main purposes of landscaping the pedestrian zone is the organization of a sanitary protection strip between the pedestrian zone and the roadway.
The building's structural system is a prefabricated monolithic frame consisting of factory-made reinforced concrete elements. The prefabricated monolithic technology allows you to assemble frames with large spans between the columns. The spatial stability and rigidity of the frame is ensured by the rigidity of the crossbar joints with columns and stiffening diaphragms. Concreting the junctions of the crossbars with the floor slabs and filling the joints between the slabs with concrete creates a hard disk of the floor.