Prison as we know it today 4 originated in the eighteenth century, when revolutionary movements and the ideas of the Enlightenment brought about a radical transformation of society, from the political as well as the social and economic points of view, drastically modifying the existing world-view, the economic organisation and the respect for human rights. For some time now prison has been defined as “an expensive way of making bad people worse,” 3 and for this reason, without wanting to debate on the functions and on the deep reasons for the existence of the prison as a correctional instrument in our society, it is worthwhile to imagine alternatives to the traditional way of conceiving it and to the role it plays in contemporary cities. 2 In fact, it is precisely beginning from the appearance of the penitentiary building, that is of its architecture, that in synergy with other fields of study it is possible to attempt a general re-thinking of contemporary penitentiary structures, trying, however, to limit the recourse to detention in prison. Although it is undeniable that there is a correlation between a certain philosophy of punishment and its materialisation in penitentiary institutions, it is also true that this materialisation is not necessarily aimed at transmitting, both from the inside and from the outside, the image of a closed, unsettling and isolated reality, lacking in any opportunities for renewal.
This can help envisage an institution which, however anchored on some basic principles, can express the new vision and the new interpretation of the punishment. One example is the establishment of new conceptual principles of a typological nature and a new vision of the prison understood as an active component of civil society capable of interacting with the surrounding context and of generating relations and interchange with the outside world.
Simple efficient prison architect layout series#
When analysing the current situation of penitentiary systems in Western countries (Italy, Spain, the United States, etc.), the difficulties and incoherencies that continue to exist to this day regarding the role of prison in contemporary society, as well as the objectives it should pursue and the concrete results it should obtain, result quite evident.Ĭonsidering that the essence of the punishment as envisaged by the constitutions of democratic states (the limitation of the freedom of movement within a specific enclosed space) is not to be put into question here, it is however necessary to present a series of hypothesis for re-thinking the nature and features of the material and spatial structure in which the punishment is carried out.
Most societies that today have adopted Criminal Law as an instrument for regulating the penal system in an egalitarian manner, despite the fact that they have adopted and consolidated the principles of re-education and social re-insertion of the detainees 1 after serving their sentence, find themselves searching for alternative answers to an unsolved issue which weighs heavily on all communities, both from the economic and social points of view. If prison architecture were brought back into the debate regarding contemporary design culture, it could have a significant impact for society especially in terms of opportunities and cultural growth.
This paper investigates the possible design approaches aimed at designing a new jail typology, through an attempt to "break" the macro-themes that characterize the building of the prison and within these dichotomies work on the "boundary-line" between opposing realities: freedom―constriction openness―closure etc. The contradiction of the prison is revealed by its need to respond to two opposing demands: punishment and reintegration. The effectiveness of a prison is not given only by the efficiency of the justice system in force, but also by the articulation of spaces and by the quality of the architecture. How do we treat those who make mistakes? And what does this have to do with architecture? The paper will investigate the role of architecture in the design of prisons in order to understand how we could develop a project for a jail that is a place for both punishment and rehabilitation.