Kevin Wu

Safehaven Centre of Excellence Design Guidelines: Encouraging and Supporting Autonomy in Adult-focused Personal Living Space

These are part of a collection of design guidelines for a facility called Safehaven that supports children and young adults with special needs. We were asked to contribute to the future of the facility with design solutions, suggestions, inspirations, and aspirations for the community of Safehaven.

“This is a collaborative project with members of the class; Jessica Hwu and Beverley Freedman.We used interviews and research to understand Safehaven as a community and as an aspiration. We developed guiding principles that included reverse inclusion, safety, security, autonomy, individual complexity, well-being and equitable technology. The outcome is a series of themed solutions, spaces, innovations, and applications that will contribute to the process of building a new Safehaven community.Based on our interviews with frontline workers, clients with complex care needs often have their physical care needs met while cognitive and mental health care needs are overlooked. This is a result of the complexity of care in physical needs alone. While caregivers, along with clients, can manage their physical needs in their living space at Safehaven, the maintenance of mental health, personhood, and individuality of clients may not be given sufficient consideration in the care environment. The need for self-expression, individuation, and autonomy provides us with an opportunity for design.”