Síndrome de Down: dois estudos de casos em Juiz de Fora - MG das potencialidades e obstáculos da arquitetura escolar

Abstract

The dissertation aims to understand how architecture responds to needs and can influence the development, participation and inclusion of children with DS in school. Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic anomaly defined as an alteration in chromosome 21 that causes delays in motor and mental functions since birth. The research is justified because, in Brazil, school architecture observes aspects of physical-spatial inclusion centered much more from the perspective of physical accessibility than in a broad context that involves the place and the environment as a whole. It is a qualitative and exploratory work, developed in the city of Juiz de Fora, MG, through research in two schools in the municipality, supported by three methods: an open interview, with the schools' administrative area; the Walkthrough tour and the application, carried out with professionals, or qualified caregivers of children with DS, of the questionnaire entitled School Function Assessment (SFA). As a result, maps of environmental discoveries were constructed for each school based on methodical instruments applied on the spot. The discussions of the investigations pointed out that inclusion is not directly dependent on the physical-spatial and functional relationship provided by architecture, for example, physical accessibility is not an impeding condition for the development of children with DS. The methodological orientation and the pedagogical constitution used by schools proved to be more relevant and prior to the question posed here. When observing the significant role in the environmental context of the person / person and person / society relationships, it was also observed that the characteristic of the school environmental system goes beyond the microsystem that surrounds it, being important to observe, at least, the mesosystem environment in which the school is. Architecture itself, in its final considerations, allowed us to point out that it maintains its classic function of serving the purpose of human relations. The object provided by it, from this perspective, is not insignificant, because, on the one hand, in cases where it was not possible to obtain a good architectural response, there were problems of various kinds, such as functional adaptations, physical-spatial and administrative difficulties, among others. On the other hand, when good physical-spatial relationships were observed, there was a positive response for the development of children with DS, as well as environmental comfort and stress reduction for caregivers. In this sense, even though it is not a directly perceived object, architecture, using a scenographic metaphor, serves as a stage and scenery for the school, where if this stage, or scenery is bad, the actors will have greater difficulties to perform the play, that is, returning to reality, they will have difficulties in the human relationship that uses that encapsulated space for the development of activities and relationships of daily life.