Juanita Aguirre Special School is located in the Chorrillos area, in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile. It focuses on educating and rehabilitating children and young people, presenting different types and degrees of mental and physical disabilities. However, students without disabilities also attend this school.
Founded in 1977, it currently has 194 students, allocated in two big groups; a basic level (from 3 to 15 years old) and a multi-workshop level (which includes students from 16 to 26 years of age). In order to assist these students, the school has a professional team available, formed by 16 teachers and 5 rehabilitation specialists: three psychologists, one speech therapist, and one general therapist.

Our team detected, as a preliminary diagnosis, that the school’s current infrastructure does not fulfill the basic requirements needed in order to get the students involved in optimum rehabilitation processes. Some of the factors that make the educational process of children and young people difficult are: the inadequate size of classrooms and workshops, lack of equipment, scarcity of adequate levels of lighting and air ventilation, the division between disabled and abled students, and the absence of connections with the nearby community.

With the intention of contributing to overcome these shortcomings, our team proposes new meeting and integration areas for both handicapped and non handicapped students, as an emotional and educational incentive tool for rehabilitation. Furthermore, these new areas need to contribute to correct the current shortage of equipment detected in the diagnosis.

For this purpose, the intervention is composed of three parts, which are organized around the school’s common space, that is to say, the schoolyard. Firstly, a new element of striking appearance, called “rehabilitation treadmill”, is incorporated. This route, which begins on the first level, takes place on a low slope which allows it to reach a second level, skirting the edge, and rounding off with the second component of the intervention: a new rehabilitation workshop. This workshop is more spacious and has improved equipment and lighting conditions. In addition, services for supporting the rehabilitation, such as restrooms of suitable dimensions and areas for storage, are incorporated.

The route gives handicapped students the feeling of “conquering altitude” while operating as an exercise track specifically designed for them. By connecting the upper levels of the existing building with the new premises suggested, it also solves functional aspects.

Finally, as a third component, the incorporation on the schoolyard level of different therapy units, with interiors designed for specific rehabilitation processes is proposed. These, however, should also be open to the non handicapped students, so that they can learn about their classmates’ recovery process.

This form of intervention, presented for Juanita Aguirre Special School, may be replicated in any educational context all over the world. The particular structural and architectural aspects, such as accessibility, capacity, lighting and ventilation can be adapted to the specific requirements of each country or area.

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