Unbuilding Stigma - Project Report

Centro Penitenciario de Alcalá de Guadaira (Sevilla Mujeres)

Centro Penitenciario de Algeciras (Botafuego)

Centro Penitenciario de Almería (Acebuche)

Centro Penitenciario de Córdoba

Centro Penitenciario de Granada (Albolote)

Centro Penitenciario de Huelva

Centro Penitenciario de Jaén

Centro Penitenciario de Málaga

Centro Penitenciario de Sevilla I

Centro Penitenciario de Sevilla II - Morón de la Frontera

Centro Penitenciario Málaga II - Archidona

Centro Penitenciario Psiquiátrico de Sevilla

Centro Penitenciario Puerto I

Centro Penitenciario Puerto II

Centro Penitenciario Puerto III

Centro Penitenciario de Daroca

Centro Penitenciario de Teruel

Centro Penitenciario de Zaragoza - Zuera

Centro Penitenciario de Arrecife

Centro Penitenciario de La Palma

Centro Penitenciario de Las Palmas

Centro Penitenciario de Las Palmas II

Centro Penitenciario de Tenerife II

Centro Penitenciario El Dueso

Centro Penitenciario de Ávila

Centro Penitenciario de Burgos

Centro Penitenciario de Dueñas - La Moraleja

Centro Penitenciario de Mansilla de las Mulas

Centro Penitenciario de Segovia

Centro Penitenciario de Soria

Centro Penitenciario de Topas

Centro Penitenciario de Valladolid

Centro Penitenciario de Albacete («La Torrecica»)

Centro Penitenciario de Alcázar de San Juan

Centro Penitenciario de Cuenca

Centro Penitenciario de Herrera de la Mancha

Centro Penitenciario de Ocaña I

Centro Penitenciario de Ocaña II

Centro Penitenciario de Brians 1

Centro Penitenciario de Brians 2

Centro Penitenciario de Mujeres de Barcelona (Wad-Ras)

Centro Penitenciario Puig de les Basses

Centro Penitenciario de Gerona

Centro Penitenciario de Jóvenes de Barcelona

Centro Penitenciario de Lledoners

Centro Penitenciario de Ponent

Centro Penitenciario Mas d’Enric

Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Tarragona

/Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Barcelona/

Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Lérida

Centro Penitenciario Quatre Camins

Pabellón Hospitalario Penitenciario de Tarrasa

Centro Penitenciario de Ceuta II

Centro Penitenciario Madrid I - Alcalá mujeres

Centro Penitenciario Madrid II - Alcalá Meco

Centro Penitenciario Madrid III - Valdemoro

Centro Penitenciario Madrid IV - Navalcarnero

Centro Penitenciario Madrid V - Soto del Real

Centro Penitenciario Madrid VI - Aranjuez

Centro Penitenciario Madrid VII - Estremera

Centro Penitenciario Castellón II - Albocácer

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante Cumplimiento

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante II - Villena

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante Psiquiátrico

Centro Penitenciario de Castellón

Centro Penitenciario de Valencia - Picassent

Centro Penitenciario de Badajoz

Centro Penitenciario de Cáceres

Miguel Malato Agüera /Fall 2022/

Thesis - Project Report

Centro Penitenciario de La Lama (Pontevedra)

Centro Penitenciario de Bonge (Lugo)

Centro Penitenciario de Monterroso (Lugo)

Centro Penitenciario de Pereiro de Aguiar (Ourense)

Centro Penitenciario de Teijeiro (A Coruña)

Aarhus School of Architecture

Centro Penitenciario de Ibiza

Centro Penitenciario de Mahón (Menorca)

Centro Penitenciario de Palma de Mallorca

Centro Penitenciario de Logroño

Centro Penitenciario de Melilla

Centro Penitenciario de Pamplona

Centro Penitenciario de Álava (Zaballa)

Centro Penitenciario de Bilbao (Basauri)

former

Transforming

Fig. 1_ La Modelo, first floor

Centro Penitenciario de San Sebastián (Martutene)

Centro Penitenciario de Villabona

Centro Penitenciario de Murcia

Unbuilding Stigma

transforming former prison La Modelo into a reinsertion catalyst for Barcelona

Proposal by Miguel Malato Agüera

Thesis - Project Report

Fall 2022

Aarhus School of Architecture - Denmark

Studio 2A: Building, Design and Techniques

Supervisor: Gonçalo André Pires

The quality of today’s democracies could be measured by their penitentiary system and their approach to reinsertion. In a world where more than 22 million people are incarcerated, it seems crucial to assess the physical conditions in which these citizens live. Removing someone from their freedom might not be the best response to a problem, but it is a fact that prisons exist and constitute an enclosed environment where architecture not only defines the world but is the world in itself.

The project Unbuilding Stigma takes the shape of an essay that seeks to raise awareness about the importance of prison architecture in the process of reinsertion and embraces the actual demand for an open facility in Barcelona. However, this project challenges its current location proposal in the outskirts of the city and stablishes the need of its integration within the urban fabric. The open prison is not a machine for reinsertion, but a piece of it, a piece of the city.

The chosen site for the proposal is the abandoned prison of La Modelo, located in the compact neighborhood of l’Eixample. This deteriorating infrastructure served as penitentiary until its recent closure and, by proposing its transformation into an open prison, the project establishes a continuous comparison with its repressive and controlling past. Besides, its historical and cultural relevance has brought discussions about preservation, reuse, and the adaptation of it to a new context, together with the study of its material and structural conditions.

The proposal resulted in the sketch of a new typology that combines the reinsertion center with public facilities that the neighborhood is demanding, opening the old prison to create new bonds between the inmates and their local surroundings. However, it could be considered not to be the ideal expression of the program as it deals with the physical limitations of the existing, but at the same time it is enriched with the spatial and material qualities of La Modelo.

Keywords: prison architecture, reinsertion, transformation, open prison, masonry structure, cellular grid

Fig. 2_ A cell in Skien prison in Norway.

Fig. 3_ A cell in Haiti’s Civil Prison.

Fig. 4_ A cell in Spanish prison of Estremera, Madrid.

Unbuilding stigma

This project should be understood as a continuation of previous interests in the importance of the built environment during healing and therapeutical processes as well as its role in behavior alteration and changes in conduct. The construction of our being is determined in part by the context and thus by architecture.

Therefore, architecture plays a key role in those imprisoned as it constitutes their whole physical context and builds their habits and memories through long periods of time.

“Inside the prison, inmates eat, sleep, work, study, play, swim, go to the doctor, and visit their families. They also talk, negotiate, listen, learn, express opinions, relate, hate, and love. Inside the prison, people also look, think, read, and listen to music; they doubt, they are inspired, they worry, they get distracted, excited, depressed, hopeful, they cry and laugh. Like it or not, the prison becomes the de facto world for the inmates, the setting for their lives and their compulsory and necessary frame of reference.”

(Roger Paez, 2014: 29)

This Thesis is an essay, as well as an attempt to put into practice these ideas through an academical project.

“ (...) the confinement that responds to the prison’s need for custody results in a heterotopic quality, which makes it necessary to address the problem of totality: in a prison, architecture is the world.”

(Roger Paez, 2014: 21)

IntroductionFocus of the matter

CRIMES

- Crimes against the person

- Crimes of gender violence.

- Economic crimes

- Crimes against property

- Crimes against public health

- Traffic offenses

- Administrative and political crimes

- Crimes against the environment and urban plan

- Crimes against freedom

- Crimes against honor

- Crimes against social security and workers' rights.

- Crimes against sexual freedom

- Crimes against privacy

- Crimes against family rights and duties

- Crimes against intellectual and industrial property.

- Crimes against foreigners.

- Crimes against historical heritage.

- Fire crimes.

- Crimes against the administration of justice

- Crimes against public order

/Unbuilding stigma - Transforming former prison La Modelo into a reinsertion catalyst for Barcelona/

Reinsertion process

Penitentiary crime

Centro Penitenciario de Alcalá de Guadaira (Sevilla Mujeres)

Centro Penitenciario de Algeciras (Botafuego)

Centro Penitenciario de Almería (Acebuche)

Centro Penitenciario de Córdoba

Centro Penitenciario de Granada (Albolote)

Centro Penitenciario de Huelva

Centro Penitenciario de Jaén

Centro Penitenciario de Málaga

Centro Penitenciario de Sevilla I

Centro Penitenciario de Sevilla II Morón de la Frontera

Centro Penitenciario Málaga II - Archidona

Centro Penitenciario Psiquiátrico de Sevilla

Centro Penitenciario Puerto I

Centro Penitenciario Puerto II

Centro Penitenciario Puerto III

Centro Penitenciario de Daroca

Centro Penitenciario de Teruel

Centro Penitenciario de Zaragoza Zuera

Centro Penitenciario de Arrecife

Centro Penitenciario de La Palma

Centro Penitenciario de Las Palmas

Centro Penitenciario de Las Palmas II

Centro Penitenciario de Tenerife II

Centro Penitenciario El Dueso

Centro Penitenciario de Ávila

Centro Penitenciario de Burgos

Centro Penitenciario de Dueñas - La Moraleja

Centro Penitenciario de Mansilla de las Mulas

Centro Penitenciario de Segovia

Centro Penitenciario de Soria

Centro Penitenciario de Topas

Centro Penitenciario de Valladolid

Centro Penitenciario de Albacete («La Torrecica»)

Centro Penitenciario de Alcázar de San Juan

Centro Penitenciario de Cuenca

Centro Penitenciario de Herrera de la Mancha

Centro Penitenciario de Ocaña I

Centro Penitenciario de Ocaña II

Centro Penitenciario de Brians 1

Centro Penitenciario de Brians 2

Centro Penitenciario de Mujeres de Barcelona (Wad-Ras)

Centro Penitenciario Puig de les Basses

Centro Penitenciario de Gerona

Centro Penitenciario de Jóvenes de Barcelona

Centro Penitenciario de Lledoners

Centro Penitenciario de Ponent

Centro Penitenciario Mas d’Enric

Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Tarragona

/Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Barcelona/

Centro Penitenciario Abierto de Lérida

Centro Penitenciario Quatre Camins

Pabellón Hospitalario Penitenciario de Tarrasa

Centro Penitenciario de Ceuta II

Centro Penitenciario Madrid I Alcalá mujeres

Centro Penitenciario Madrid II Alcalá Meco

Centro Penitenciario Madrid III Valdemoro

Centro Penitenciario Madrid IV - Navalcarnero

Centro Penitenciario Madrid V - Soto del Real

Centro Penitenciario Madrid VI Aranjuez

Centro Penitenciario Madrid VII Estremera

Centro Penitenciario Castellón II Albocácer

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante Cumplimiento

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante II Villena

Centro Penitenciario de Alicante Psiquiátrico

Centro Penitenciario de Castellón

Centro Penitenciario de Valencia - Picassent

Centro Penitenciario de Badajoz

Centro Penitenciario de Cáceres

Centro Penitenciario de La Lama (Pontevedra)

Centro Penitenciario de Bonge (Lugo)

Centro Penitenciario de Monterroso (Lugo)

Centro Penitenciario de Pereiro de Aguiar (Ourense)

Centro Penitenciario de Teijeiro (A Coruña)

Centro Penitenciario de Ibiza

Centro Penitenciario de Mahón (Menorca)

Centro Penitenciario de Palma de Mallorca

Centro Penitenciario de Logroño

Centro Penitenciario de Melilla

Centro Penitenciario de Pamplona

Centro Penitenciario de Álava (Zaballa)

Centro Penitenciario de Bilbao (Basauri)

Centro Penitenciario de San Sebastián (Martutene)

Centro Penitenciario de Villabona

Centro Penitenciario de Murcia

Level Two

Firm

Picassent Penitentiary Mas d’Enric Penitentiary El Dueso Penitentiary

freedom

Level Three on Parole

Level Three Recidivism

Undefined Level (Recently condemned)

Those with a firm conviction are sent to a closed priso where, after assessment for up to two months (which normally is extended), the Prison Board proposes a classification and if necessary, the prisoner is moved to the appropriate facility.

Level One (Category A)

This level is assigned to dangerous prisoners that require to be held in isolation in maximum securtiy institutions or in a maximum security wing in closed prisons. Restricted time in the courtyard and never in groups. Controlled communications.

Level Two (Category B and C)

This is where the majority of the prisoners are. It is the ordinary prison regime in ordinary wings in closed prisons. The inmates share common areas, follow educational programs and go out to the courtyard. They can also leave the prison a few times a year.

/ Purpose of transformation/

Level Three (Category D)

Corresponds to those serving prison terms under open conditions. Control is softened and inmates are assgined to specific centers. It can be an open wing in a closed prison, an open prison, electronic monitoring, halfway house or therapeutic community.

Level Three on Parole (Conditional freedom)

Previously considered as Level Four (2015), now it is considered a suspension of the conviction. The inmate is released an may only continue his conviction if he commits another crime. This status is achieved after 3/4 of the conviction or exceptionally 2/3.

An open prison for Barcelona

Figures: Spanish Penitentiary System

According to Eurostat, Spain has a rate of 125 per 100,000 people in prison, compared to the average 104 rate in overall Europe. It is one of the highest rates in the EU for countries of these size, only overtaken by Poland at 196 (2019). Compared to the rest of the world where the US takes the lead at 639, it is way below average.

On the other hand, the Spanish penitentiary system has gone from a major overcrowding of its prisons during 2010’s, to a decrease in the last few years that has taken the occupation rates to historical minimum at 73.1% of capacity. However, many of the 65 existing prisons are reaching their obsolescence and there are new projects for renovation of the old ones and the construction of new modern ones, as well as the study of new typologies.

Taken the Spanish context, it is clear that the penitentiary system tries not separate those that have been condemned from their physical and social environment. All bigger cities in Spain have a prison nearby, and that is to reinforce the reinsertion of the inmates by keeping their relatives and friends in the proximity. Sometimes it is even the neighbors surrounding the prison that take part in activities to help reconnect these people back to society, and so is the case of the open prisons.

Catalonia has begun to test this new prison model focused on third degree prisoners. However, its implementation has been partial and fragmented due to the reuse of existing infrastructures, not designed for this purpose. The regional government has finally decided to create an open prison in Barcelona with accommodation for up to 800 people, this being the trigger for the thesis.

Fig. 6_ Prison rates in Europe 2020

Fig. 7_ Mas d’Enric Prison. View of the interior Street

Fig. 8_ Ortophoto of La Modelo

The school, the park, the open prison...

The main objective of this project is to study the reinsertion process in the penitentiary system and propose its implementation through a specific architecture typology: the open prison. Besides, the project proposes the integration of this typology as part of the urban fabric, using parts of existing buildings or segments of new developments to integrate these reinsertion centers, in contrast with the tendency of placing them in the outskirts of the cities. The definition of the program and the radical selection of the site in the old prison of Barcelona, seek to find the conditions to prove this statement and express how crucial therapeutical architecture is in certain environments.

Additionally, the transformation of La Modelo pretends to stablish a clear comparison between the old and the new reinsertion model, bringing to the discussion not only the matter of the infrastructure in itself, but also how it should impact the hosting city and, the other way around, how the prison can take advantage of its surrounding environment. The transformation deals with its physical limitations and with the current ethics of prison habitation. This thesis seeks to raise questions such as: what is the optimal location for an open prison? What is the role of architecture in the reinsertion process? And how does architecture show the moral values of a society?

Fig. 9_ A cell

Three scales: the city, the building, the fragment

The method developed for this project consists in unifying the idea of transforming and reconnecting the former prison La Modelo, with the introduction of the reinsertion program. These two inputs participate during the design process in a theoretical approach and also in a more physical and tangible manner.

Theoretically through readings and reflections about building rehabilitation, materials, and urban analysis on the one hand, and about behavior, reinsertion, and healing spaces, on the other; but also physically, in the form of study models, analytical drawings and diagrams that overlay multiple aspects and conditions of the existing. As a remarkable line of research, and in order to understand the existing parameter, a series of models have been developed reading the building with different spatial perspectives.

Additionally, and as part of the initial approach, a visit to the former prison in Barcelona has helped broadening the perspective on the matter as well as understanding the historical and physical context. This visit had two moments: (1) a guided tour around the building to understand the processes and rhythm of the building before its closure; (2) a personal drift to understand the materiality, the light, the spatial compression of the cell and other architectural qualities of the building as a piece of architecture.

The final proposal materializes these approaches on three scales: (1) the city, establishing a dialogue between the existing piece and its urban environment; (2) the building, understanding the different volumes and open spaces as a whole and developing general transformation strategies; (3) and the fragment, working on the specific case of one of the wings of the panopticon and adapting it to the program.

Fig. 10_ Planning. This diagram shows the initial distribution of time and the work on different scales and types of material during the development of the Thesis.

The city of Barcelona is located by the Mediterranean Sea at less than 200km from the border between Spain and France. With its more than 1.5 million inhabitants, it is the second largest city in the country and has experienced a lot of subsequent changes during its history.

The fall of the medieval perimeter walls allowed for a radical change of the urban landscape with the urbanization of L’Eixample in 1855 by Ildefonso Cerdá. This new extension sought to occupy all the Barcelona plain with a grid of 113 meters square blocks separated by 20 meters wide streets and diagonally crossed by two avenues to provide affordable and desirable housing for the each time bigger industrial workforce of the city.

The success of this plan took place during the following century, with the filling of all the blocks proposed with residential buildings but also with social and cultural facilities such as hospitals, schools, theaters, and churches like La Sagrada Familia by Antonio Gaudí.

Fig. 11_ City plan, overlaying 1900 and 2020

The city block is characterized by a perimeter of 7-story housing buildings with a ground floor connected with the street through bars and shops. However, there are certain urban pieces that do not correspond to the use of the prototypical plot, such as the North Railway Station, the bullring or the hospital and medicine school, among others.

Maybe one of the most relevant elements was the construction in 1904 of the Barcelona Penitentiary Center for Men, commonly named as La Modelo. This building occupied two connected blocks of the perimeter of Cerdá’s grid and constituted an emblem of the Spanish penitentiary system in that time. It served as a ‘model’ for the construction of other prisons around the country and sought to enhance the treatment of their inmates through control and surveillance.

Fig. 12_ City plan, 1:3000. Pieces analysis

Fig. 13_ Exceptions in the grid

Joan Miró park

The construction begins. Progressive approach for reinsertion of inmates through surveillance and control.

Commitment to close it

The Catalonian Parlament pushed for the construction of new centers to replace it. Protected heritage

Level C protection and approval of Master Plan in these terms.

Opening. The center was located far from the urban development.

First riots. The model failed very fast and the inmates rebelled. First execution in 1908.

Repression model Taken by the dictatorship, the prison served to jail political opents and activists.

Female prison

The old female prison was closed and La Modelo became a mixed center.

The Master Plan The terrain occupied by the prison was determined to be reused for a park and facilities

Final Master Plan

Detailed description of volumens and uses such as schools, geriatric...

First transformations

The City Hall of Barcelona obtains the terrain and the building.

First closure 8th of June the prison is finally closed.

First steps

Opening for the public as a cultural venue for the neighbors

Competition

As a result of the shared wishes, the competition starts.

Final transformation

Final competition results for the new park and housing.

Built by the Spanish Catholic Church in order to reeducate through faith, its cathedral-like appearence did not have the expected outcome and riots were frequent until it was finally abandoned in 2017, its 113 years of history and its wide cultural rooting allow an open series of interpretations to its meaning and significance making its intervention a relevant study case.

Fig. 14_ Timeline - Before and after democracy in Spain

Fig. 15_ Riot.

Fig. 16_ Police repression of riots.

Fig. 17_ Lunch given by the nuns

Fig. 18_ The prison in the outskirts (Barcelona, 1931)

Fig. 19_ First execution in the prison: anarchist Rull (1908)

Fig. 20_ Demonstration for the closure of the prison.

Historical footage and cultural rooting

La Modelo prison has left a great impact in the Spanish collective memory. It has been occupied by relevant political figures such as Lluís Companys (President of Catalonia before the Civil War, tortured and executed), Joan Rull (anarchist) or Paco Madrid (republican and socialist journalist).

On the other side, it has also hold dangerous criminals such as El Vaquilla (killed a woman at the age of 12) or Juan Paredes (terrorist).

Fig. 21_ Original state of the prison. Nort-West wing (long module)

Fig. 22_ Neighborhood debate for the presentation of proposals

Fig. 24_ Orthophoto of La Modelo prison in its current state

Fig. 23_ Exterior view. Panopticon dome and side wings.

Exterior and perimeter

Fig. 25_ Exterior view. End of wing and perimeter wall.

Fig. 26_ Access way and control cabin.

Access way and Panopticon

Fig. 27_ Panopticon column detail and capitel.

Fig. 28_ Panopticon central space.

Fig. 29_Walkway view, metal structure detail.

Fig. 30_Cell wing: ceiling detail (left) and short wing (right).

Cell wing

Fig. 31_Cell wing

Fig. 33_Reclusion cell. It includes full bathroom. bed and desk.

Fig. 32_Cell window, blocked view to the courtyard.

Cells and courtyard

Fig. 37_Symmetric courtyard and access to the panopticon (bottom).

Fig. 36_Ground floor cell windows (top).

Fig. 35_Cell window, exterior view.

Fig. 34_Perimeter wall, interior view.

Fig. 38-43_Wing ceiling lamp with anti-suicide net (top left); location of vile club “garrote vil” for executions (top right); bar gate to wing (bottom left); bar gate access (bottom center left); cell door zoomed (bottom center right); cell door (bottom right).

Fig. 45-49_Meeting cabins for visitors and inmates (top); toilet tanks outside the cell to prevent sabotages (center); kitchen door with ventilation (bottom left); safe (bottom center left); street light at the front door (bottom center right); ventilation and light wall system (bottom right).

Fig.

Fig. 51_Ground floor, removing secondary buildings that are to be demolished. Interpretation of light and material conditions.

Fig. 52_West facade

Pre-existing conditions

Fig. 53_First floor

Fig. 55_North-East facade

Fig. 54_Second floor

Fig. 56_Third floor

Fig. 58_South-West facade

Fig. 57_Roofing

Fig. 59_South wing Frame repetition

Fig. 62_West wing Structural system

Fig. 60_East wing Celullar grid

Fig. 61_South-east wing Floor slabs

Analizing the wing

The initial analysis of the existing building focused on identifying those architectural features that define the wings of the central panopticon. In this way, the situation model incorporated a different reading in each of the wings, thus describing: (1) the structural repetition in the cross section view, (2) the cell distribution in longitudinal section, (3) the system of slabs and walkways, (4) the load-bearing structure in relation to the interior volume, (5) the central corridor as a transit axis, (6) and the qualities of the façade.

Fig. 63_North wing Inner street

Fig. 64_North-west wing Detailed exterior

Fig. 66_East wing, cellular grid

Fig. 65_South-east wing, floor slabs

Fig. 67_South wing, frame repetition

Fig. 68_West wing, structural system

Reinsertion catalyst

An open prison consists of a minimal security penitentiary institution that allows those condemned with minor crimes or those granted with the third-degree permit to have more contact with the exterior. The inmates would normally have 8-10 hours long periods outside, from several times a month to daily in order to see their families, attend educational programs or go to work. Meanwhile, during their hours inside of the institution, they get help from guards and therapists to overcome their difficulties and develop new skills.

The program proposal incorporates, in addition to the dwellings and common spaces of the prison, a series of public accessible facilities for social and cultural activities where the inmates can interact with the neighbors, creating bonds that can help through their process of reinsertion.

Fig. 69_Program description

A city within a city

This project proposes the definition of the open jail as an extension of the city itself. In this way, a parallelism is established between the spaces of the city beyond the wall, and the resulting spaces within it. The building structures and overlays the public domain: squares, streets, shops, meeting spaces, parks; with the private realm: therapy, cohabitation, the terrace, the housing unit. The prison hosts a microcosmos of the city.

This conceptual approach tries to embrace the process of reinsertion by vanishing the traditional typology of the prison and creating a flexible and more urban and homelike environment instead. The controlled dormitory-like structure is reshaped into a dynamic set of spaces that breaks with the strict boundaries, defined pathways and homogeneous appearance of reclusive penitentiary centers.

Fig. 70_A city with a city diagram

Panopticon linear structure

One central space and movement in one direction towards this center. When you leave the current cells, there is only one directional space, movement is restricted and imposed.

Design strategies

Controlled environment through visual surveillance

First through physical vision from the panopticon and then with cameras.

Repetitive space

No personal appropriation and feeling of belonging.

Lack of external view

The windows where design to be able to look only at the sky, to the point that it was not possible to reach the window as the ledge is not horizontal.

Defined access point and closed perimeter

Movement as a fixed procedure for the inmates

One unique space

All accessible space for the prisoners has no separation between public, common and private spaces.

Breaking defined movement

Multiplicity of axis, intersection of spaces and freedom of paths. The common spaces become more ambiguous and undefined and the access to them should be possible from different points.

Controlled through personal relationships

Raising common awareness and trust relationships. In the physical aspect, creating of private corners, personal pockets in the building.

The existing prison was purposely designed to serve a specific way of treating those condemned through surveillance and control. The open prison proposal follows the opposite approach, so the building needs to be reshaped in order to follow this new reinsertion process, while keeping its institutional condition.

Variability.

Variation in shape, materials, light, etc.

The “Authoritarian Architecture Catalogue” developed after the study of the building, identifies those existing processes within the building that materialized the penitentiary system when La Modelo was built. In contrast, the “Reinsertion Architecture Catalogue” discussed during the development of the project, proposes a reaction and transformation of these circumstances to clearly claim the open prison as a new architectural typology.

More open façade considering the structural possibilities

Multiple paths

To reach the access point that is still required to ensure security inside of the prison space ( metal detection and lockers for external belongings).

‘Home’ feeling.

Morning and evening routines should allow flexible rhythms for the prisoners and not a fixed process.

Cells are treated as individual homes.

The prisoner leaves that space and enters a common circulation space (streets in the city) and reaches other climatized spaces or open plazas within the building.

Fig. 71_Authoritatian vs reinsertion

Design strategies

Fig. 73_Decaying façade

/photo by author/

Fig. 72_Art intervention on wall /photo by author/

The building as a quarry

The massive framework of the building does not originally respond to a structural reason, but the excessive thickness of the walls and the hardness of its materials, were intended to prevent the escape of the prisoners. If the Model was built with rock from a quarry in the outskirts of Barcelona, the strategy for its transformation involves understanding the building as a quarry itself, from which material can be subtracted to generate new spaces.

On the other hand, the excavated material becomes the source that defines these new spaces. The use of terrazzo, using the rubble from the renovation as aggregate, gives the whole a homogeneous character, but at the same time, allows different and refined finishes to be achieved both on the outside and inside. These final coverings make it possible to distinguish and identify the different spaces, from a greater roughness in the open spaces, to a more polished and haptic character in the accommodations.

Fig. 74_Terrazzo palette

Fig. 75_Three scales

Three scales

The conceptual, spatial and material strategies are reflected in the building by working with three scales: the scale of the city, the scale of the building and the scale of the fragment. The development of the thesis has consisted of continuous work on these three scales.

Fig. 76_Exterior view from the street

The city

The scale of the city is focused on the understanding of what happens beyond the existing perimeter of la Modelo and on the modification of the limit that it establishes.

The described city of l’Eixample has been completely consolidated and, in the last decades, there has been a process of densification of the interior of the blocks that form it. This has caused the porosity of the urban fabric to be greatly reduced, allowing the public space to exist only in the streets, mostly dedicated to motorized transport. However, the project site has preserved the patios of the panopticon, being re-naturalized in the project in order to recover the interior of the block as an essential element of the original planning of the city.

On the other hand, one of the edges of these exterior spaces is made up of the double perimeter wall of the prison, which, instead of being completely eliminated, is used in two ways: as a partial separation from the exterior, by opening certain sections; and as the holding structure to mirror the opposite side of the street, integrating shops or bars where the prisoners could find work and develop integration programs.

Fig. 77_City porosity

The building

The townhall has already determined educational uses for the secondary buildings, therefore the scale of the building focuses on the panopticon piece and the former prison courtyards, stablishing a general set of tools for the intervention, that are then adapted to the chosen wing to hold the open prison.

On the ground floor, the central corridors are modified to function as interior streets, thus doubling the façade and defining the circulation around these new bands of interior uses.

The cellular distribution is altered, defining resistant segments every four existing modules, thus making the interior distribution more flexible. The restrictive mesh of cells is taken as a starting point for the creation of various spaces that can merge both horizontally and vertically, while connecting with the opposite side through terraces on the upper floors.

Also in the courtyard, its imposing constraints, and monotony are the source of variations and diversity of spaces. The continuous flooring where there was no hierarchy, is reinterpreted to create different platforms that alter the movement throughout the whole outdoor space. Again, the grid that repeats over and over, works as a source of diversity.

Fig. 79_Interior view, public space

Fig. 78_Ground floor proposal

The fragment

The scale of the fragment takes one of the wings of the panopticon to implement the transformation strategy and adapt it to the open prison program. Considering that one of the two longest wings is expected to be preserved in its current state as a museum, it was decided to work with the south wing, since its size allows for a better integration of the program.

The wing is horizontally divided into three segments that evolve from (1) an open-to-the-public ground floor, bringing access for the general population through a Cassal de Barri (public center for the neighborhood); (2) a restricted first floor where only therapists and inmates from the open prison can access; (3) and the last second and third floors only accessible for those inside the prison where they live collectively. This programmatic division blurs when entering the building as the different levels have certain degrees of permeability and the building works as a whole through crossed visuals and shared volumes.

Fig. 80_Long section proposal

Fig. 81_Internal street proposal

Fig. 82_Cluster detail

Fig. 83_Second floor, open prison

The habitational part of the prison is structured in different clusters of 4-5 inmates that share the living spaces. The spheres of personal interaction with other inmates go from the single room for more lonely moments, to the closer group belonging to the same cluster; then it grows to a mixture of different clusters in the bigger meeting spaces, and finally expands to an undefined number of people that would eventually occupy the public spaces on the ground floor, also available to the prisoners, as any other citizen. Finally, it opens to the whole of the city.

This transition is reflected in the haptic and visual qualities of the materials, especially through the different finishings of the proposed terrazzo. In the more intimate spaces, we find the walls and floors cladded in a more refined way with casted in situ polished panels; while the more public spaces that could be considered the streets and squares of the building, use tiles and the roughness of the naked masonry wall.

Fig. 84_Habitational unit

Buildings are to be transformed and their resilience through time confirms their original understanding of the program and the context in which they are built. The old prison of La Modelo was designed as an isolated element within the grid of Barcelona. The city grew around it and the building was just modified to become more and more isolated, rejecting its location, building higher walls and even covering its courtyards. However, its recent closure has opened the opportunity to redefine its position in the city and its immense scale challenges the possibilities for its new uses.

The development of the project began from the visit of the building, discovering the interior and exterior rhythms of the panopticon and understanding the repetition of its structure as the origin of infinite possible spaces. The structuring of the complex as a microcosmos, redefining the limits and dignifying the large courtyards as public spaces for the city as a whole, respond to a large-scale treatment. On the other hand, the proposal to integrate an open prison has allowed working on a small scale, with the intimate, the haptic, highlighting the qualities of the structure through the surgical addition of elements.

In addition, this exercise has tried to show the importance of architecture as a cognitive stimulus, as a trigger for change in the character of people, especially in those circumstances where architecture is the world of those who inhabit it.

Finally, this proposal represents the end of a series of projects and investigations carried out during my last university years that reflect a personal interest in neuroarchitecture, that is, in the tangible effects of built space on our cognitive system.

Fig. 85_Ceiling view proposal

Books and thesis

References

ábalos, Iñaki. Palacios comunales atemporales: Genealogía y autonomía. Barcelona: Puente editores, 2020; 128 pages.

fairweather, Leslie; mcconville, Seán. Prison ArchitecturePolicy, Design and Experience. New York: Routledge, 2000; 162 pages.

kirkham-lewitt, Isabelle. Paths to Prison: On the Architectures of Carcerality. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020; 526 pages.

malato agüera, Miguel. Neuroarquitectura - La neurociencia como herramienta de proyecto. Bachelor Thesis Archivo Digital UPM, 2020; 76 pages.

metzger, Christoph. Neuroarchitecture. European Union: Jovis, 2018; 224 pages.

paez, Roger. Critical Prison Design - Mas d’Enric Penitentiary by AiB arquitectes + Estudi PSP Arquitectura. New York: Actar Publishers, 2014; 245 pages.

Articles

marti barrachina, Marta. “Prisoners in the community: the open prison model in Catalonia”. Research Gate, March, 2020, pages 211-231.

perea, Jorge; llovet, Samuel; montoya, Ferran; martín, Amado. (2019, March). “MPGM per a la transformació de La Model. I modificació de la fitxa de l’element 254 del pla especial de protecció del patimoni arquitectrònic i catàleg del districte de l’Eixample”. Ajuntament de BarcelonaEcologia urbana, pages 1-539.

Fig. 1 _ Illustration by author

Fig. 2 _ splinternews.com

Fig. 3 _ telegraph.co.uk

Fig. 4 _ elcorreo.com

Fig. 5 _ Illustration by author

Fig. 6 _ Eurostat, Statistics Explained - Prison statistics /ec.europa. eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/

Fig. 7 _ archdaily.com

Fig. 8 _ google earth

Fig. 9 _ lamodel.barcelona.es

Fig. 10-14 _ Illustration by author

Fig. 15-16 _ elperiodico.com

Fig. 17-19 _ abc.es

Fig. 20-22 _ elperiodico.com

Fig. 23-27 _ Photo by author

Fig. 28 _ traveler.es

Fig. 29-49 _ Photo by author

Fig. 50 _ Video by author

Fig. 51-58 _ Illustration by author

Fig. 59-68 _ Model by author

Fig. 69-85 _ Illustration by author