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The Origin And Nature Of Our Institutional Models

From: Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded
Creator: Wolf Wolfensberger (author)
Date: January 10, 1969
Publisher: President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C.
Source: Available at selected libraries

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Buildings for the retarded, like other buildings, can project many meanings. Certain of these meanings are of particular relevance to our discussion. I propose that at least three such relevant meanings can be readily recognized in retardation facilities: The building as a monument, as a public relations medium, and as a medium of service. Each will be discussed briefly.

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The Building as a Monument. Buildings are often erected, consciously or unconsciously, as monuments. In mental retardation facilities, this is especially likely to be true of administration and medical treatment units. The monument may be to a governor; a famous man; a foundation donor, or donor dynasty; or an administrator or professional who may want to achieve identity or "immortality" through this monument-building. Common examples of the latter are the aged superintendent or administrator who wants to make one last, only, or major, contribution before he retires or dies.

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While such aspirations often result in genuine benefits to mankind, they can also pervert the consciously verbalized or officially defined purpose of the building. For example, in order to fulfill its function as a monument, the building may be erected in a locality not consistent with optimal program development; available funds may have been so plentiful as to result in a building that is either larger than optimal or overequipped; limitations of funds may result in a building so small as to require wasteful duplications and adjustment later; the ambitions of the initiator may require a free-standing building where an additional wing or floor on existing buildings would have been preferable; or the concepts which the initiator imposes upon the building plans may force future human services into undesirable and hard-to-remedy patterns. Examples of the latter are donations of facilities such as swimming halls, medical buildings, or churches. The existence of such facilities often makes it very difficult later to establish a pattern of increased use of the community for recreation, medical services, and church attendance. Similarly, an expensive new service building designed to serve large numbers of residents can become a great obstacle to reduction of an institution to a smaller size.

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"Let us remember that our purpose is not to build costly monuments, at the expense of the taxpayer, to architects, legislators and governors or indeed to ourselves, ..." (Kirkbride, 1916, p. 256).

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The Building as a Public Relations Medium. A building, or an entire facility, can become a medium of public relations. While such a medium may produce desirable and beneficial results in the long run, the public relations functions may also be irrelevant and even detrimental to the welfare of current residents. A number of examples follow.

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1. The building may function as an advertisement for the architect. There are many instances of widely acclaimed buildings which had serious functional shortcomings.

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2. Innovations in design may become means of aggrandizement or advancement to staff or superintendents. Real benefits of novel designs may be blown up beyond all proportion. Other widely hailed design innovations may later be recognized as gigantic and foreseeable errors. For example, one institution in the late 1950's erected a new showcase nursery in which the infants' cribs had solid (and expensive) marble sides and wire mesh fronts. Among other things, this obviously could lead to injuries, especially to children with seizures. Only a few years later, the cribs had to be rebuilt at great expense. This was hailed as another dynamic innovation rather than as rectification of a predictable blunder.

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3. Finally, a building may be a public relations tool for a governmental or political body. The building may be designed to win votes or good will, to gain power by providing employment opportunities and/or patronage, etc. Again, such buildings may do more harm than good. Erection of large institutions in isolated areas has often been prompted by such public relations, rather than service, considerations.

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The Building as a Medium of Service. Finally, buildings may be designed truly and completely with service and function considerations in mind. In residential centers in the United States, such buildings are more likely to be encountered in private rather than public agencies. Too many of our public residential buildings and facilities reflect political, economic, and other considerations which have little to do with resident welfare.

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The Focus of Convenience of a Building

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Social norms demand that when a residence of some sort is constructed, we must pretend and proclaim that the building is designed for the convenience of the prospective residents. In reality, the building may be designed to serve the convenience of the builder (architect?). If residences are erected with public funds, the convenience of the community can easily become a primary consideration. If the prospective residents belong to a deviant subgroup that requires special management, then the building may be designed for the convenience of the "manager" (who is usually not a resident) rather than the "managed" resident.

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