“Our House” is a dedicated centre for disabled children and their families in Wokingham, Berkshire. The centre was the vision of the parents who set up a charity called Building for the Future, and after a fundraising campaign from local businesses, they enlisted the skills of the design team at Koubou Interiors to make their dreams become a reality.

 

The challenge set for the Koubou designers was to create a centre with zoned areas to enable the children of various ages and disabilities to use the facilities and have somewhere they could call their own. Understanding how the centre was to be used and the special needs of the children was crucial to our designs.

The centre needed to be fun, friendly, welcoming to all, comfortable and practical- wheelchair user friendly. We also included lots of seating for parents where they could observe and support their children and a bathroom that complied with DDA. All of the surfaces were carefully selected, the design team did a lot of research into each product to ensure that it would stand up to the demands of the centre. 

 

Testimonial for Koubou

Koubou have given us an amazing and inspirational space for our disabled children to play in!

Throughout the design process the project team exhibited an expert knowledge of materials, space and architecture, paying good attention to how the space would be used by our children. We appreciate the time spent on the details which addressed functionality without compromising beautiful design.

Koubou listened well to our initial brief and had a good understanding of what we wanted to achieve – giving great advice for a solution within our budget. They then relayed their vision with a set of beautifully crafted mood boards which instantly sold their concept to everyone who saw them!

We are so pleased we carried through Koubou’s services to project manage the refurbishment, which took a lot of stress off our hands! The project was managed with a high level of professionalism and any challenges along the way were quickly overcome by researching ingenious solutions.

The real testimony is the reaction of our children when they come to play! Even though we are a charity with limited funds, employing the services of Koubou has proved to be a worthwhile investment to create somewhere really special they want to come back to again and again!

We would be very happy to recommend the services of Koubou to any perspective clients!

Karen Woolford

Trustee, Building for the Future

Gallery

  • Our house play area for children with disabilities

    The play area in the Our House Disabled Children's Centre was designed to have different areas for the children to play computer games, soft play, sensory, painting, drawing and also a sensory room designed for them, within the project. We designed the Centre Play pod so that children could play on the floor with their toys, do puzzles, read or sit with their parents. The curved wall “hugs” the children as they play providing them with protection from the other users of the centre. The dramatic helictical wall sweeps down from the ceiling creating a beautiful feature to the centre.

  • Patient Toilet and Bathroom

    We designed the patient toilet and bathroom, with an accessible bath. There is a hoist for the children to be lowered into the bath, and washed.

  • The Sensory Room

    The Sensory room uses light, sound and a wide range of specialised equipment designed to create an environment that is calming and relaxing for the children. It encourages interaction with equipment giving children the opportunity to explore cause and effect.

  • The chillout room

    The chillout room was designed specifically for teenagers, to maintain some connection with the rest of the centre we incorporated 4 porthole windows within one of the walls and specified printed acrylic inserts which mirrored the adjacent wall graphic. We specified printed acrylic inserts for the porthole windows which mirrored the adjacent wall graphic.

  • The paint and drawing area

    This painting and drawing area was designed as an enjoyable, accessible space where children could do arts and crafts together with their parents and peers.

  • Soft Play and Arts Area

    The wall covering with handprints was specifically used for children with special needs to help them understand what this space was for - arts and crafts! The soft play area, which you can see on the far right, has a ball pit, and tunnels for them to play with.