Contemporary confines

OeverZaaijer architecture and urbanism has – in close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Transmo – developed cell containers in a temporary extension of the existing prison complex in the heart of Kralendijk. These are 2-person cells, which were realized in sea containers. In addition to cell containers offices, meeting rooms, guard posts and work rooms were realized in sea containers. The existing building was also extended with a new entrance hall, a central porter's lodge, a guestroom and office- and meeting space. Recently 12 detention cells were put into use. On 11th March the project was completed. More

The spatial intervention "Out in Prison" has at its core the central thesis that there is a right to architecture for everybody. Problematizing the production of space, the question is at what point such a process begins. In this case it begins with the vexed issue of why there are prisons in the first place, what type of construction public money is being spent on, and if architects should enter into working "for" prisons. Also, questions come into play as to who prepares the brief for such a project and how prisoners´ rights to space are regarded. Given that in this case there is something not entirely "justified" about the spatial situation to work on, a problematic spectrum for architectural action opens up ranging from cynicism (manif... More

Madrid-based OOIIO Architecture have developed a proposal for a 'female prison' located in Iceland. The project started with the team asking people who live and work in the establishments what it felt like. The conclusion was that the worst thing about living in a correctional facility is the feeling that you are actually in one. As a result, this design does not look like a typical penitentiary. The structure is based on natural light, open spaces and greenery such as peat, grass and flowers. it dismisses the dark spaces, small cells and grey concrete walls typical of a traditional prison. Instead of containing the functions in a singular building, this breaks into several tiny and more human scaled pavilions. The program is complex, si... More

The prison contains eight separate building clusters, linked to the internal road network like pearls on a string. Each building surrounds a natural dip in the ground, benefiting from the view of the inner courtyards and gardens of the prison. There are views of the surrounding landscape at a number of points, visible above the six-metre-high concrete wall which runs for 1,5 kilometres around the prison complex – an organic feature reflecting transitions in the landscape. One of the aims was to reduce the institutional image of the complex, and to create a framework supporting the intentions of the prison: time spent here is intended to prepare the inmates for life outside the walls afterwards. The buildings are also spread out – several... More

Unit 5 of "JJI De Hunnerberg, De Maasberg" in Overloon is converted from a prison for adults into an autonomously functioning juvenile detention institution. This is the first juvenile detention in the Netherlands where youngsters are treated in small groups of ten instead of twelve. So each youngster gets more treatment and coaching. The old school is mainly demolished and partly renovated with the sports accommodation and a new building for the living area have been realised. This new building for living is the main part of the masterplan. Concept The resoluteness of the world which aims at the interior is partly removed. A new and more intensive interaction with the surrounding nature is aimed at for the youngsters. The open str... More

Unit 6 of "JJI De Hunnerberg, De Maasberg" in Overloon is converted from a prison for adults into an autonomously functioning juvenile detention institution. This is the first prison in the Netherlands where youngsters are treated in small groups of ten instead of twelve. So each youngster gets more treatment and coaching. The buildings are renovated and two new living rooms have been added. A new pavilion for education, visitors and offices is the main part of the masterplan. Concept The resoluteness of the world which aims at the interior is partly removed. A new and more intensive interaction with the surrounding nature is aimed at for the youngsters. The open structure stimulates the daily shifts between living, learning and recre... More

C. F. Møller Architects has won the competition to build a new, closed state prison on the island of Falster. The new state prison for approximately 250 inmates is designed as a low, urban structure, centred round the various leisure and working facilities, which are connected via several streets and a central square. The design creates an urban environment, interacting with the landscape on both sides of the six-metre tall perimeter wall. For this compact, urban structure means that there is also left space for natural and cultivated areas, areas for animal husbandry and for the integration of sports facilities in the landscape within the perimeter wall. Mads Mandrup, who is architect and partner in C. F. Møller and responsible for th... More

Studio M10 has designed a TBS-clinic, a clinic for criminals with a psychiatric disorder, in which the architecture and the landscape melt into each other as separate categories. The liberal use of glass makes it possible to experience the landscape from within the building. A year from now, the barren site will be entirely green. The patients will be doing the maintenance work on the inside of the clinic themselves. A third of the site will be used to grow vegetables. Even when fully grown over, the garden will remain extremely abstract: it will remain a rectangular surface with straight paths and without the slightest slope. In order to retain the necessary view, the plants will be kept low. The garden is a sublimation of the Dutch pol... More

Purpose and Objectives of the Competition The absence of detention establishments adapted to minors in several Swiss cantons as well as the requirements of international conventions, has made necessary an establishment for the detention of juvenile delinquents. Because of its central location in French-speaking Switzerland, a Latin concordat has attributed to the Canton of Vaud the onus of establishing and using an intercantonal establishment of fifty places. After a detailed analysis of various sites, Palézieux-Gare has been selected. It is indeed the site corresponding best to the general objectives that have been fixed. The future center will have the mission to detain minors in a closed and secured frame whilst providing them wit... More