Case Study: School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Children
The School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Children in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India,
completed by 2021, is a carefully designed school that provides a safe, accessible, inclusive,
and quality education to its students. Allowing them to navigate independently throughout the
school using their non-visual senses: touch, hearing, and smell. Designed by SEALab Studio,
Headed by Ar. Anand Sonecha and in collaboration with Mariana Paisana have designed the
school together with their team, Rahul Pandav, Harsh Goti, Siddhi Dalicha, Yash Pachkawade,
Shruti Kamble.
Plain, simple and functional, The School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Children
may look lacking in design, but has multiple features that the architects thought meticulously for
its design to serve as a guide for the children. In the school, smooth and rough kota stone is
used. Throughout the school, Smooth kota stone is used as its flooring. Whereas, The rough
kota stones are used to mark the entrance of each classroom. Texture change serves as an
indication for the students that they have entered a classroom. On its walls textured plaster is
used. There are five different wall plaster textures used within the building to help guide the
students. The two longer sides of the corridor have horizontal textures, whereas the shorter side
has vertical textures. This helps students identify which sides of the corridor they are navigating.
The central courtyard has a semi-circular texture, whereas the external surface of the overall
building is sand faced plaster.
Light has a big role to help the students navigate throughout the school. It is a common
misconception that the blind can’t see anything, or they only see darkness when they open their
eyes. But in reality, there are different levels of blindness. They can still see and distinguish
different levels of light and see color changes, but it differs depending on the level of blindness.
Throughout the school there are specific skylights and openings designed to create contrasting
areas with light and shade. An example of this technique used within the school is the entrance
vestibule of the special classrooms, they are marked by high ceilings with a skylight making a
flare of light. Contrasting colors are also used on the doors, furniture, and switchboards so that
the students can differentiate the elements during navigation. It is important to note that
students with low vision are sensitive to direct sunlight. That is why the classrooms have
indirect, filtered light from the private courtyards and skylight.
The circulation of the school is designed to be navigated using the senses of touch,
hearing, smell, and sight. The design creates a “sensory environment” to help the students
create a mental map of the building. The combination of these different sensory markers help
them navigate throughout the school.
SIght - Using contrasting colors, students can easily differentiate elements during
navigation such as doors, furniture, and switchboards.
Hearing - The design has different heights and widths of areas of the corridors and
classroom so that the children can recognize them by sound. The entrance corridor has a high
ceiling height (3.66m), and it gradually reduces in height (2.26m) and width, giving an
identifiable sound quality to each space. The sound of the voices or steps echoes throughout
the spaces, and the sound of the echo changes depending on the space.
Smell - The landscape surrounding the building has a significant role in the design. The
courtyards located next to the classrooms and connected to the corridors have aromatic plants
and trees, which can help the students navigate in the building.
Touch - The material and textures of the walls and floor, with smooth and rough surfaces,
guide the students throughout the spaces.
Other than sense as a tool to navigate, each classroom has different features for specific
uses for special uses, such as the music rooms, meeting spaces, and workshop. Based on their
function, these “special” classrooms have various forms, volumes, and light qualities. The other
classrooms are like verandahs: each opening to a private courtyard with the possibility for
outside learning and allows for better ventilation and controlled light quality.The shape of the
building helps create a play of light and shadows, and the design can handle the hot climate
efficiently.
The need to create the school stems from the condition of the existing school, which was an old
building with limited space and poor living conditions. They wanted to provide a high-quality,
inclusive learning environment and support non-visual navigation. They have achieved their goal by
having multiple meetings at different stages of the process to engage the students and teachers on
the design. They have created 3D models that allowed for the construction of tactile drawings and
robust models that the students could touch and visualize spaces. Because of this, they’re goal for
the project is to create a design that students can create a mental map of their school.
The design, mainly focusing on their available senses, helped a lot of children
independently navigate through the school. The changes of ceiling height and classrooms having
various forms, volumes, and light qualities is a huge help for students to identify where they are. It
might seem subtle, but once you lose one sense, the others are heightened. Like little changes of
echo in a room can mean something to them, or different textures can be a guide. By identifying the
needs of the Ultimately, the SEALabs studio have achieved their goal of making a safe space for
learning for the students.
