CHILDREN'S UNIVERSITY

The name I chose for my children’s university is “Juvenile”. By dictionary definition the word means “small bird”, it is also used to refer to young people and especially children/ toddlers. Juvenile is a safe space for children between the age of 8 and 12 years old. More specifically children among that age range who suffer from specific mental disorders. The type of disorders that is caused by traumatic life experiences, such as PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, OCD: obsessive-compulsive disorder, additionally to eating disorders, severe anxiety, and extreme phobias.
 
After research that I have done at the initial steps of the project design process and while trying to decide on my concept, I have found that there aren’t many educational institutions that offer reinforced help to kids with those specific cases. Therefore it encouraged me more to pursue that concept via my design as a person that was a very anxious child myself! 
 
The building is of three floors organized according to different facilities that respond to the needs of those children. The underground floor is mainly dedicated to an indoor swimming pool facility. The ground floor is a mixture of an art workshop/exhibition, a dining hall, a nap room, a public library, a seminar room, and two huge galleries that allow visual contact with the lower and upper floors. The first floor is for classrooms, labs, a model-making studio, a story corner, the administration offices, a health center, and yet another library floor.
 
In Juvenile, courses such as communication skills, speaking up one’s opinion, model making, swimming, art, and story writing/telling will be taught. All of which are extremely beneficial for the brain complexion of children facing such mental disorders.  
Interestingly enough, this project is my personal favorite project that I ever got to work on. I believe that is probably because I, myself, faced many of these disorders as a child and it would have been thousand times more comforting if a place like Juvenile existed around me as a toddler. And now that I get to design one, it is definitely a great experience. This project taught me more than I expected it to. Time management, relatability, even some new photoshop skills! I am very grateful to my instructors for having chosen this genius topic of “children’s university” that I have never even heard of before this semester. This was definitely one that I will always remember. :)