top architecture design thesis 2021

GOA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

GOA, INDIA

Design thesis authored by

RUCHA VELINGKAR

THESIS SPECIFICATIONS

Thesis Title: Residential school for the Visually and Hearing Impaired, and the Mute – Goa

Project type: Institute for the disabled

Year of completion: 2021

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Abstract

The words like blind, deaf, and mute create a negative sense. A sense of loss. The visually impaired people lack the visual perception of space and the world around them, which makes it difficult for them to cope up with the environment as easily as the one with proper vision. The hearing impaired and the mute on the other hand can visually experience the space and things around, nevertheless, have trouble in understanding and communicating, which further leads to mental stress and social barrier.

Introduction

Blindness has many definitions. Some define blindness as a complete inability to see, whereas some may state blindness still entails a differentiation between light and dark. The National Federation of the Blind encourages people “to consider themselves to be blind if their sight is bad enough – even with corrective lenses – that they must use alternative methods to engage in any activity that persons with normal vision would do using their eyes.” That is, blindness, in this case, is a condition in which someone requires an alternative way of doing things.

The United States Bureau of the Census question about “significant vision loss” considers both total or near-total blindness, as well as “trouble seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses” as vision loss.

Legal blindness requires that central visual acuity is 20/200 or less in the better eye with the best possible correction, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less. There is no widespread definition for “visually impaired,” “low vision,” or “vision loss,” although there is a widely understood norm for these categories.

A common misconception is that a blind person cannot see anything, that someone who is blind sees nothing but empty black. The following series of images will portray different views a person with varying degrees of visual loss or impairment may experience.

A person who is not able to hear as well as someone with normal hearing – hearing thresholds of 20 dB or better in both ears – is said to have hearing loss. Hearing loss may be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. It can affect one ear or both ears and leads to difficulty in hearing conversational speech or loud sounds.

‘Hard of hearing’ refers to people with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. People who are hard of hearing usually communicate through spoken language and can benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices as well as captioning.

‘Deaf’ people mostly have profound hearing loss, which implies very little or no hearing. They often use sign language for communication.

Deaf-mute is a term that was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices sometimes attract. Such people communicate using sign language.

Relevance of the Project

India has the misfortune of having the largest number of blind individuals in the world, along with plenty hearing impaired and mute. A student with such disabilities finds it difficult to cope up in the conventional schools due to poor design considerations, hence it is important to design campuses that suit their requirements and help them learn and live in a hospitable environment at their own pace. The school is located at Cujira in Bambolim, Goa next to a pre-existing educational complex and the Goa Medical College and Hospital opposite, which suits the best for such an institute in terms of medical and social environment.

Project Idea

There are very few institutions for students with such disabilities. And the ones which are, have been designed with mere consideration of design requirements for them and details. The cost of living for such people increases due to the various medical and technical facilities needed for them and so, both the parents are mostly working, and cannot give full physical attention to their kids, which asks for a caretaker or a day school, which sometimes goes beyond affordable.

The basic idea of the project is to design a school taking into account all the difficulties faced by these people and designing appropriate techniques, spaces, and materials, which will be government-aided and thus be affordable for the families.

Project Aim

The project aims to design a residential school along with vocational training for the hearing and visually impaired, and the mute, incorporating various architectural elements that can be experienced using all the senses. This will create for them, a much accessible and hospitable environment, along with creating better opportunities in the future.

Project objectives

To provide a comprehensive and integrated learning cum living environment.
To give opportunities to the hearing and visually impaired, and the mute to learn the academics and various other vocational training along with outdoor physical activities

To design architecture for all senses, enhancing their perception of space, using multi-sensory design strategies.
To attract the public by creating unique architecture, in turn helping toward reducing the social barrier.

Sheets

the end

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