Designing an Autism Healing Center with Emphasis on Nature Therapy

Abstract

BackgroundAutism is a mental disorder which influences children’s learning ability and social skills. The children who suffer from autism are capable of learning, but comparing normal children, different facilities are required.The architectural space highly signifies the matter of teaching autistic children; interior and exterior design interacting nature and environment also plays a very significant role. Thus nature can be used as a healing agent, since the psychological impact of nature is highly effective.PurposeDesigning a healing center for autism considering a compatible design with nature in order to treat autism in children, improving their social skills in communication, decreasing hysteric behavior, and developing cognitive and emotional capacities, is the major aim of designing this project.Methods and ResultsUtilizing the data analysis related to autistic children and nature-based therapy, this article attempts to present the concept of a healing center in order to hold an educational space compatible with nature. This echo-therapy would be highly helpful in treatment of autistic children.SignificanceThere has been lots of information about the influence of echo-therapy on autistic children during recent years, but the practical use has rarely occurred. Children’s physical safety which is more guaranteed in a closed space is one reason; therefore, designing a safe construction interacting with nature, which can be under the control of instructors, seems very difficult. Thus, in this nature-based healing center, besides improving the skills mentioned, the children’s safety has been highly considered.