Hallway re-design for kids with special needs
Overview
A service and spatial design project to reimagine the first-floor hallway of the second building at Mid-Kurzeme School & Development Centre in Kuldīga, Latvia — a boarding school for roughly 170 students with diverse cognitive and physical disabilities. The hallway is not a corridor in the conventional sense. For students who cannot go outside in winter, it is their primary social space, movement space, and sensory environment from Monday to Friday. The goal was to make it stimulating, identity-rich, and non-institutional, in the spirit of Malaguzzi's principle that the environment is a child's third teacher.
I played a key role in ideation process throughout the project and from conceptualising the ideas that aligns with the goals of the project.
Categories
Special needs
spacial design | service design
Client
Mid Kuruzeme district School, Latvia
Duration
3 months
Problem
The hallway was 19.57 metres long and 2.6 metres wide — tight, grey, and functionally blank. The walls were plain white with no tactile quality. The ceiling was entirely unused. The floor had footprint stickers that no student paid attention to. A TV sat unused in the corner. The only wayfinding system was a staff member verbally telling students where to go. Teachers described it in their annual reviews with one word: boring.
What made this more than an aesthetic problem was the student population it affected. Students with nonverbal communication, wheelchair users, students with sensory processing challenges, and boarding students who spent their entire week in that building were all passing through — or being left in — a space that gave them nothing. The hallway was the one shared space between all classrooms, the toilet, the sleep room, and the outside world. In winter it became the only indoor social and movement space available. Designing it well or badly was not a minor decision.
Research & Discovery
What already worked and what needs improvements started with more questions
Research Methods
Key Insights
How Might We
How might we design a hallway that caters to the contrasting needs of diverse students and staff — facilitating movement comfortably and safely, meaningful and educational engagement, and sensory regulation?
Solution
Key Outcomes
Hallway re-design for kids with special needs
Overview
A service and spatial design project to reimagine the first-floor hallway of the second building at Mid-Kurzeme School & Development Centre in Kuldīga, Latvia — a boarding school for roughly 170 students with diverse cognitive and physical disabilities. The hallway is not a corridor in the conventional sense. For students who cannot go outside in winter, it is their primary social space, movement space, and sensory environment from Monday to Friday. The goal was to make it stimulating, identity-rich, and non-institutional, in the spirit of Malaguzzi's principle that the environment is a child's third teacher.
I played a key role in ideation process throughout the project and from conceptualising the ideas that aligns with the goals of the project.
Categories
Special needs
spacial design | service design
Client
Mid Kuruzeme district School, Latvia
Duration
3 months
Problem
The hallway was 19.57 metres long and 2.6 metres wide — tight, grey, and functionally blank. The walls were plain white with no tactile quality. The ceiling was entirely unused. The floor had footprint stickers that no student paid attention to. A TV sat unused in the corner. The only wayfinding system was a staff member verbally telling students where to go. Teachers described it in their annual reviews with one word: boring.
What made this more than an aesthetic problem was the student population it affected. Students with nonverbal communication, wheelchair users, students with sensory processing challenges, and boarding students who spent their entire week in that building were all passing through — or being left in — a space that gave them nothing. The hallway was the one shared space between all classrooms, the toilet, the sleep room, and the outside world. In winter it became the only indoor social and movement space available. Designing it well or badly was not a minor decision.
Research & Discovery
What already worked and what needs improvements started with more questions
Research Methods
Key Insights
How Might We
How might we design a hallway that caters to the contrasting needs of diverse students and staff — facilitating movement comfortably and safely, meaningful and educational engagement, and sensory regulation?
Solution
Key Outcomes
Hallway re-design for kids with special needs
Overview
A service and spatial design project to reimagine the first-floor hallway of the second building at Mid-Kurzeme School & Development Centre in Kuldīga, Latvia — a boarding school for roughly 170 students with diverse cognitive and physical disabilities. The hallway is not a corridor in the conventional sense. For students who cannot go outside in winter, it is their primary social space, movement space, and sensory environment from Monday to Friday. The goal was to make it stimulating, identity-rich, and non-institutional, in the spirit of Malaguzzi's principle that the environment is a child's third teacher.
I played a key role in ideation process throughout the project and from conceptualising the ideas that aligns with the goals of the project.
Categories
Special needs
spacial design | service design
Client
Mid Kuruzeme district School, Latvia
Duration
3 months
Problem
The hallway was 19.57 metres long and 2.6 metres wide — tight, grey, and functionally blank. The walls were plain white with no tactile quality. The ceiling was entirely unused. The floor had footprint stickers that no student paid attention to. A TV sat unused in the corner. The only wayfinding system was a staff member verbally telling students where to go. Teachers described it in their annual reviews with one word: boring.
What made this more than an aesthetic problem was the student population it affected. Students with nonverbal communication, wheelchair users, students with sensory processing challenges, and boarding students who spent their entire week in that building were all passing through — or being left in — a space that gave them nothing. The hallway was the one shared space between all classrooms, the toilet, the sleep room, and the outside world. In winter it became the only indoor social and movement space available. Designing it well or badly was not a minor decision.
Research & Discovery
What already worked and what needs improvements started with more questions
Research Methods
Key Insights
How Might We
How might we design a hallway that caters to the contrasting needs of diverse students and staff — facilitating movement comfortably and safely, meaningful and educational engagement, and sensory regulation?
Solution
Key Outcomes
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran