Centro de atención integral para población joven y adulta neurodivergente en la ciudad de Bucaramanga

Abstract

In Colombia, specialized infrastructure for neurodivergent youth and adults is scarce and fragmented, limiting access to adapted clinical and therapeutic services. Bucaramanga reflects this shortcoming by lacking comprehensive facilities that offer specialized health services in an accessible and sensory-safe environment for this population. Taking a critical stance on inclusion implies that architecture, considering the principles of Universal Design, must reinterpret its role as a social agent, orienting its practice toward the creation of spaces that recognize and respond to the cognitive and sensory particularities of all its users. In this context, the proposal for the Comprehensive Care Center for neurodivergent youth and adults in Bucaramanga emerged, designed to provide specialized medical and therapeutic care, guarantee physical, sensory, and cognitive accessibility, and promote spaces for meeting and integration with the community at large. The development of the project was based on a qualitative-project methodology, supported by an urban, regulatory, and social analysis that identified the Sotomayor neighborhood as the optimal location due to its centrality and proximity to complementary services. The characterization of the user and their spatial needs was carried out by reviewing international references and interviewing the director of ECO, a neurodiversity care center in Querétaro, Mexico, whose contributions were decisive in structuring the architectural program and defining sensory and functional comfort criteria geared toward the target population. The result was a spatial model that articulates clinical and therapeutic areas, workshops, social interaction zones, recreational spaces, and rest areas, with smooth transitions and stimulus control through materials, color, and multisensory signage, with a bioclimatic approach that prioritizes environmental comfort, thus configuring an inclusive architectural model that responds to the functional, sensory, and social needs of the neurodivergent population and that can serve as a reference for the development of similar spaces in Colombia.