Murray Adolescent Training and Treatment Academy
Charlotte, North Carolina

The new campus of Murray Adolescent Training and Treatment Academy (MATTA) is based on their belief that at-risk populations require a multifaceted, step-through approach to the treatment of acting out behaviorally, emotionally handicapped adolescents. The campus is intended to incorporate care for youth at all levels of treatment. The approach in this project has been to conduct inductive reviews of empirical literature and studies, identifying reliable information about the impact of the designed environment on behavioral, social, and education performance. Findings resulted from this process suggest a number of recurring problems in the physical environment of the school, residential and acute in-patient treatment. Within this context a set of problems have been identified then restated in the form of six organizing principles for the campus. These were 1) territoriality and personalization, 2) privacy, crowding and stress, 3) common areas, 4) circulation and wayfinding, 5) accessibility and security, and 6) flexibility. The final product of this project is an architectural program, centered on these principles, that accommodates the vision of the academy and its future needs.