The placement of a child or adolescent in a Juvenile Educational Institution profoundly shapes both the child’s life and family dynamics. Institutionalization is typically involuntary, and separation from family and the familiar environment is deeply challenging. For the child, it conveys a sense of being different and socially undesirable. Parents often experience shame, perceiving the child’s behavior as public evidence of their failure to raise them according to social norms and values. Families may conceal the placement from the community, as it is often perceived as a punishment, while the children are regarded as outsiders and deviants.
Social stigma significantly affects access to and the experience of psychosocial support and care. It compromises the quality and accessibility of services, discourages help-seeking, and limits the success of therapeutic interventions.
Building on this understanding of stigma and exclusion, my thesis focuses on the Juvenile Educational Institution SC Logatec. I examine how spaces of care and their placement within the spatial context affect the community and its perception of care infrastructure and those who depend on it. At the site, I explore new forms of juvenile educational institutions based on collective living, integrated community services, and active participation in community life. I investigate how architecture—through typology, organization, and design—can foster equal and inclusive living in the community for all. As part of the transformation, I position public space at the heart of the currently stigmatized institution, reinterpreting the meaning of both public space and spaces of care. Thus, the institution shifts from a symbol of exclusion to a catalyst for community and public life, becoming not an isolated facility, but a place in its own right.
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