Archinect - News

Former Internment Camp becomes Immigrant Shelter

2019-06-12T14:11:00-04:00

The Trump Administration has opted to use an Army base in Oklahoma to hold growing numbers of immigrant children in its custody after running out of room at government shelters. Fort Sill, an 150-year-old installation once used as an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, has been selected to detain 1,400 children until they can be given to an adult relative, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As of April 30, 2019, the department of Health and Human Services has taken 40,900 children seeking asylum into custody along the southern border, a 57% increase from 2018, according to Time.

The surge in detainees has overwhelmed existing and new temporary detention facilities in southern border states, so the department has had to make use of a variety of improvised facilities as it undertakes the lengthy, disorganized, and laborious process of reuniting these children with their family members.

That includes holding children in a repurposed former Walmart superstore in Brownsville, Texas, detaining asylum-seeking families in a makeshift, dirt-floored outdoor camp located underneath a highway overpass in El Paso, Texas, holding 1,500 migrants in a private prison in Louisiana known for documented cases of inmate abuse and medical neglect, and now, shuttling temporary detainees to Fort Sill, a military base in Oklahoma that was used during World War II as an internment camp for Ja...

The Architecture Lobby and ADPSR take a stand against Justice Department's zero-tolerance policy, pressuring the AIA to do the same

2018-06-20T20:33:00-04:00

The Architecture Lobby and Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility have issued a joint statement condemning the Justice Department's widely criticized zero-tolerance immigration enforcement policy that has led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents as families seek asylum at the border.

"It is immoral and inhumane to separate children from their parents, and to use family separation to deter people seeking refuge or asylum. The United States must uphold international and U.S. laws protecting people fleeing violence and persecution," the statement reads.

The two organizations, which work to advance architecture by advocating for social justice reform within the field, are calling on architects, designers, planners and allied professionals to boycott any design work relating to these policies. This includes, as the statement says, walls, checkpoints, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices, detention facilities, processing centers, and ...

Raphael Sperry, President of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, on the "hauntingly real" computer game, "Prison Architect"

2015-11-11T12:45:00-05:00

space and building costs are just as much of guiding principles in designing real prisons as they are in Prison Architect. [...] "Prisoners themselves are generally not included in the conversation where the prison construction budget is allocated to different priorities, so their needs come last and cell size is generally set at the legal minimum," Sperry said. "The legal standard only bars 'cruel or unusual punishment'—a cell can be punitively small as long as it doesn't cross that limit."

More on the discussion around prison architecture:

Editor's Picks #362

2014-04-08T18:37:00-04:00

Amelia conducted an i nterview with John Szot answering questions on Architecture and the Unspeakable, a triptych of short, magnificently animated films.

News

Professor Andrew Ross, penned an editorial High Culture and Hard Labor regarding Guggenheim Museum’s Saadiyat Island project. Later, Al Jazeera America looked at the efforts by Global Ultra Luxury Faction, an offshoot of Gulf Labor (Professor Ross is a member) "working since 2011 to bring attention to the conditions that the workers on Saadiyat Island withstand".

Miles Jaffe pondered "Where does an architect's responsibility begin and where does it end?"

Ayesha Ghosa provided a recap of Belgian political philosopher Chantal Mouffe’s recent talk at GSAPP's spring lecture series.

"Basically to summarize, for political activism to enact change, Mouffe believes it is better to intervene and transform the existing codes rather than ‘start from scratch.’...In the systemic interventions and transformations she proposes – Mouffe seems to...

Building A Better Prison

2013-06-26T12:51:00-04:00

It might not seem like an architect’s area of expertise to reform inhumane prison conditions. But like attorneys, journalists and doctors, architects have a code of professional ethics. They’re required to “uphold human rights in all of their professional endeavors.” Architect Raphael Sperry says that prisons designed for prolonged solitary confinement violate the human rights of the inmates, and that he and other architects are ethically bound to do something about it.

Previously on Archinect:

Design Against Prisons

2012-05-07T14:36:00-04:00

in professional practice, there’s a tendency to lose track of the initial spark that drew us to the profession and fall into a routine of designing similar projects for a familiar client type without thinking too deeply about it. It’s hard to make any money in the profession without a certain amount of repetition and standardization. So when a project comes along that challenges your values, that would be a good time to reconnect with the reasons you got into your profession in the first place.

polis has published an interview with Raphael Sperry, former president of ADPSR, and founder of the Alternatives to Incarceration / Prison Design Boycott Campaign.