Fig: 1 – Eastern State Penitentiary, United States 1820s (Credits-Mike Graham/Flickr)

Prison Architecture

The concepts of crime and punishment have been a part of the culture in every society throughout the history of mankind. However, the acts accepted as crime and the penalties imposed upon criminals for the same crime have revealed differences in each society and each era.  Before the Modern Age, in almost all societies, the punishment was an open public activity to warn people and imprisonment was not a way of punishment. At the beginning of the modern world, the system introduced definite ‘norms’ instead of just frightening people. This new approach to punishment systems required spatial and organizational solutions. As a result, prisons in which imprisonment would be executed have developed as a building type requiring architectural design.

However, prison architecture is different from all other buildings as an architectural end product. This architectural product is such a place that whoever stays in never wants to live in as there is no relation between the spatial properties of the building and the preferences of a person (criminal) staying in it. In such a typology, research on how would such spaces be perceived and designed? 

 

Fig: 2 - Proposed renovation of Koepel Prison in Breda, the Netherlands (Credits- Design-Rem Koolhaas. Watercolour: Madelon Vriesendorp)

Questions to address

In your research, you should particularly explore and research the relationship between architecture and the ideology behind prisons. The views are expected to be analytical and precise, instead of a purely theoretical approach across the subject. 
What is a crime? 

• What are the past and present views on justice and punishment systems? 
• What is a prison and what were the forces/set of norms/views that established prisons? 
• What are the spatial parameters of the prisons we see today? 
• In what ways do these prison spaces affect the psychology of a criminal? and in what way do they help to change the mindset of the captives? 
• Through the analysis of the above research questions, Do you think the design parameters of prison should change? If yes, why; and if no, why? State your justifications based on the existing punishment norms.
   

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Note: For the competition deliverables, please check the 'Guidelines' section from the left sidebar.