CEREBRAL PALSY GREECE EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION CENTRE

ATHENS, GREECE

This unique for the services it provides centre, encompasses a large number of different activities that allow disabled persons, children and adults alike, to make use of the most appropriate, for their disability, facilities of the building.

The building includes classrooms, diagnostic rooms, physiotherapy, workshops of various kinds, a library, an enclosed therapeutic swimming pool, offices and an outdoor sports area. A twelve-bed guest wing caters for the overnight stays of children from out of town.

The 225-seat multi-purpose hall is designed and equipped for theatre as well as for other functions such as gymnastics. One of its features is the ramp, extending the full width of the stage and accessing it from the front, thus bringing closer together audience and disabled performers. Sliding/folding side doors allow for extending the hall activities into the adjoining dining area.

An external ramp running along the side of the building has made use of the site’s slope to effectively render two of the building’s floors into ground floors. This has greatly facilitated accessibility by enabling both the main entrance and the school to be level with their respective external areas.

The red brickwork façades together with the reddish roof tiles dominate the external colour scheme which is accentuated by the bright blue of the metal elements. Internally, the most characteristic use of colour is the four-colour, ranging from yellow to red, side and roof panelling of the theatre.

The limited size of the plot has not made possible any extensive landscaping. An open-air concrete-surfaced basketball court, complete with three-tier stands extending the full length of one of its sides, has been located at the rear end of the site.