Hasta La Ideas

Concrete and stone buildings with sculpted green rooftops are arranged around generous courtyards at this prison complex near Tarragona, Spain, by architects AiB and Estudi PSP Arquitectura (+ slideshow).

Surrounded by woodland, the Mas d’Enric Penitentiary occupies a sprawling site that is invisible to the nearby town, so the architects planned a series of low-rise cell blocks surrounded by large outdoor spaces.

“The Mas d’Enric Penitentiary is a pioneering socially-inclusive prison like no other, which reclaims the penitentiary as an object of architectural design,” explains AiB architect Roger Paez. “It has the potential to spark a debate on how architecture relates to social betterment.”

The chiselled rooftops were added by AiB and Estudi PSP Arquitectura as a reference to the surrounding topography and are coloured in different shades of green.

The sloping topography also comes into play in the courtyards, where stepped levels differentiate spaces, rather than fenced partitions. The architects expect this to give flexibility between spaces, but also to create a “non-oppressive environment”.

Each courtyard borders the perimeter of the site, giving prisoners a view out towards the woodland, and prison cells also face out towards the trees.

Another modern prison design on Dezeen is a competition-winning scheme for a new state prison on a Danish island. Meanwhile, a number of prison conversions have taken place recently, including a boutique hotel in the Netherlands and a civic and cultural centre in Palencia, Spain. See more stories about prisons.

Photography is by Jose Hevia.

Here’s some more information from AiB:

Mas d’Enric Penitentiary, El Catllar, Tarragona
A i B arquitectes + Estudi PSP Arquitectura

I

The prison is an uncomfortable institution and its architecture is often subjugated to technocratic criteria. This servility forces the prison out of the sociocultural realm where it belongs, thus erasing it from public discourse. The invisibility of the penitentiary as an institution demonstrates an unresolved contradiction underlying contemporary society. We intend to explore this contradiction through architecture.

A prison must respond to the demand for discipline (confinement) and liberty (reinsertion) at the same time. Within this complex framework, architecture can make use of its ability to synthetically articulate problems that seem contradictory to become an active agent in resolving the paradox of the contemporary penitentiary.

Based on our experience with the Mas d’Enric penitentiary, we claim the prison as an object of critical design and we reclaim architecture’s role in multiplying possibilities as opposed to limiting them.

II

Given very strict programmatic requirements, a series of decisions forges a link between the utilitarian and the conceptual: the construction of an appropriable, non-oppressive environment; the introduction of a maximum number of vectors of exteriority; and the generation of open space that is central both formally and conceptually.

Three keys aspects permeate the entire design process and serve as the conceptual horizons that articulate the project:

Totality: Tackling the problem of designing a total environment.
Vibration: Introducing spatial and perceptual diversity
Openness: Celebrating openness in the heart of detention.

III

Both typological and topological design strategies are central to the Mas d’Enric Penitentiary project.

Typological: We aimed to move beyond conventional modern prison architecture by creating a revised mat-building: the prison is extensive in plan and low to the ground. Contiguity eliminates residual spaces between buildings. It also allows for organizational flexibility while generating exterior spaces in the form of courtyards on different scales.

Topological: The topographical adaptation allows for a gentle integration with the terrain. It creates spatial variety while allowing for the absence of any kind of interior fencing. Distant views of the mountains are made possible by an articulation of the ground level. Views of the adjacent woodlands improve conditions in both the cells and the courtyards.

The continuity of the roof works on both a typological and topological level, creating morphological unity for the building and establishing relationships with the large scale of the landscape. The confinement required by the program is not monumentalised; on the contrary, the prison’s architecture faces up to the, perhaps impossible, challenge of creating a genuine home and hearth.

Above: location plan

Above: site plan – click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: site sections – click for larger image

Above: courtyard elevations – click for larger image

The post Mas d’Enric Penitentiary by AiB
and Estudi PSP Arquitectura appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architects C. F. Møller have won a competition to build a new state prison on the island of Falster in Denmark.

Laid out like a small village, the proposal will integrate various work and leisure facilities alongside green spaces, all linked by a network of streets with a six metre perimeter wall enclosing the prison.

Administration buildings, a library, a religious worship room, sports facilities, a shop and a central square will sit at the heart of the complex.

There will be five separate star-shaped prison blocks located on the outskirts of the facility, one of which will be high-security, where up to 250 prisoners will be housed.

Construction is due for completion in 2016.

Click for larger image

All our stories on C. F. Møller »

Here’s some more information about the project

The winning proposal for Denmark’s new state prison on the island of Falster: C. F. Møller Architects has won the competition to build a new, closed state prison on the island of Falster.

The prison is uniquely designed as a small village and integrates several landscape features, among other things animal husbandry, within the perimeter wall.

Click for larger image

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.

Click for larger image

Varied and stimulating environment

Mads Mandrup, who is architect and partner in C. F. Møller and responsible for this project, states: 

”The inmates spend all their waken hours in the prison environment, and the architecture within the prison walls is therefore an extremely important part of their lives and experiential universe. That is why we have deliberately created a very varied and stimulating environment of different spaces and landscape features – hopefully this will contribute to the re-socialization of the individual and to create renewed confidence in the community and mutual respect for society as a whole.”

In the centre are an administration building, an occupation building and a cultural centre with library, religious worship room, sports facilities and a shop. Radiating outwards from here are the prison blocks – four ordinary block wings and one high security block wing.

Click for larger image

Each individual building in the total complex has its own identity. Overall, the complex is in a warm, grey shade of brick. Variation is provided by, amongst other things, the occupation building, which is crystal-shaped and faced with perforated metal plates in green shades, and the cultural centre, which is round, covered with glass and ringed by green slats. 

Dynamic, star-shaped perimeter
With its corners and variations, the six-metre tall, star-shaped perimeter wall creates a dynamic sequence which gives a less restrictive appearance by providing a sense of dialogue with the outside world.

C. F. Møller Architects has won the competition in collaboration with the engineering company Rambøll Denmark and in close dialogue with Marianne Levinsen Landscape, furthermore the design company aggebo&henriksen and the working environment consultants company CRECEA have contributed.

Eight teams participated
Eight teams were prequalified for the competition.

The other architectural companies participating were Arkitema, schmidt hammer lassen, Lundgaard & Tranberg, Erik Møller Arkitekter, PLH Arkitekter, a team of both Kjær & Richter and aart and a team of Henning Larsen Architects and Friis & Moltke,

The jury consisted of a number of expert judges, representatives of the Muncipality of Guldborgsund, representatives of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Danish Palaces and Properties Agency, and the Danish Prison and Probation Service.

See also:

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Prison by Guillermo Hevia García	Opera and Cultural Centre by C. F. Møller	Ferry Terminal by C. F. Møller