Following The Trace “A New Approach To Penitentiary Architecture”

Following the trace of penitentiary architecture where it was intended to punish criminals to dehumanize them. It was essentially a cruel approach to reform prisoners but was it the solution! Dostoyevsky, who had been imprisoned himself, dismissed the efficacy of the practice: “Prison and penal servitude do not, of course, reform the criminal”. In addition, the prison cell revolved around the realization of the “Existenzminimum” sought by modernist architects. Prisons kept transcending to rock bottom, they were cloaks of invisibility for the state’s secret human foundations, and they still are.

Is there such thing as a perfect prison? Is it possible even in theory to satisfy needs as potentially contrasting as the needs of those inmates, victims, and society rather than neglecting moral grounds in the design process? The most important problems of prisons are overcrowding, cost, effectiveness, and built-up environment.

From the society’s perspective, the inmates consume their resources on the other hand from the inmates’ perspective the allocated resources are not sufficient to rehabilitate them.

In a post-pandemic crisis, a prison would be a ticking bomb.  The project aims to develop strategies to reduce recidivism by using virtual reality as a tool to resolve their behavioural dilemma to help them overcome them. Moreover, to aid them to reintegrate into society by providing therapeutic, educational, vocational, and daily life situation programs. In addition to shaping environments that positively influence cognitive behaviours.