Autism Skills Building

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Proposals for a charity who support people with autism, including those with very high support needs, to lead active lives in the community.  We designed a new building on a beautiful open site as a headquarters for their horticultural training activities. The Brief was developed in close collaboration with their horticultural therapist and an autism design advisor.  The budget was low so the building was carefully composed using just a few elements - a generous internal activity space opening out onto a covered but external working space and a working courtyard with staff offices, quiet rooms, kitchen and boot room forming a wing to one side.  Care was taken to create a range of different types of space both internally and externally and allow plenty of liminal space both inside and outside the building.  Materials are robust with pattern and colour limited to those of the natural materials.