Designing a different prison. Situational Architecture for inhabited spaces of detention

Abstract

In recent years, Architecture has returned to take an interest in penitentiary structures, rediscovering its civil and educational role. Prisons represent a device of forced detention, preventing prisoners to move away freely from the spaces of imprisonment. Detention models develop from a control idea through which the State exercises its power. Space is the manifestation of that power. As these buildings serve as control, society "excludes" such infrastructures from inhabited centers, stripping them of their function of public service. Architecture can provide a different view of detention, suggesting a new way of living such spaces and offering ideas for legislative instruments to the State. Similarly, designers should communicate with the users of prisons in order to better their lives, playing a pedagogical role towards the inmates. The paper summarizes these issues, starting from the researches carried out by the Department of Architecture of the University of Naples “Federico II”. The aim of this study is to define a method to design an inclusive prison, by using an exemplary project: the new prison for Nola, Italy. In this case, attention shifts from the typological definition of space to the action each person performs within it. The space is shaped from the measure of the gestures of man, determining a prison able to build positive relationships within people and its surroundings, serving society and the context in which it is located.