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Text description provided by the architects. Guymer Bailey were engaged to design a masterplan and first-stage development of new educational facilities for Western Autistic School’s Niddrie campus, now independently known as Niddrie Autistic School. The brief of works entailed demolishing a classroom block, site amenities and playgrounds that remained underdeveloped for twenty-five years. Originally a mainstream school, the aging facilities were failing to accommodate modern criteria for special needs learning and ill-suited to face unique challenges for young children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).
The school’s pedagogy requires supportive environments to help students achieve learning autonomy in preparation for mainstream education. Teaching spaces are arranged to assist students develop natural skills in problem-solving and independent thinking. These skills form a coping mechanism that, when combined with external stimuli, build confidence to learn in conventional schools. Curriculums are taught in small classes where students feel safe, and allow teachers to build close, supportive relationships.
Niddrie Autistic School’s ideology is that the ‘child is at the heart of their work’. This concept divided the built form into a series of adaptable, interconnecting learning spaces that respond uniquely to student’s primary, shared, or community needs. This multi-functionality begins in classrooms and gently unfolds into larger school settings. The design’s overarching diversity encourages inquisitive and analytical behavior allowing students to gain confidence learning in diverse environments. Individual teaching spaces address primary student & curriculum needs, guided by staff and specialists, and are accessible to visiting families. Where shared needs arise, classes combine into learning networks and communities that facilitate collaboration, engagement, and cross-support.
The project’s integration between indoor and outdoor learning saw opportunity to reclaim natural landscapes within the school’s centre and utilize their value to develop student’s physical, cognitive, and social skills. Activity spaces, courtyards and playgrounds are centralized around the school’s eldest trees, unifying historical and new site aspects. The building’s layout balances engaging group learning areas with private retreat zones to accommodate students requiring attentive care. Each class features private sensory gardens, opens to adjacent outdoor common learning areas, and observation nodes enabling passive oversight and assistance. Shared resource spaces are versatile to allow lesson diversity, can function independently, and enable mixed teaching methods in different sizes and arrangements.
Interior student wayfinding presented complications due to young age-groups and common reading difficulties for autistic students. The solution converted signage into murals that assist children pictorially. Their colours and shapes are a wayfinding tool, assisting navigation and memory in a passive, visual format. Images focus on species native to Niddrie’s region, encouraging students to explore looking for them around the school.
