But death chambers and many solitary confinement cells — they’re officially called segregation units, not incidentally — are extreme cases. Architects should not contribute their expertise to the most egregious aspects of a system that commits exceptional violence against African-Americans and other minorities.
The least the American Institute of Architects can do now is agree.
— The New York Times
The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has penned a column highlighting the moral implications of having architects design solitary confinement and execution facilities. In the article, Kimmelman explores the American Institute of Architect's reluctance to take a positive stand against having architects design these facilities.
32 Comments
Last year Kimmelman was encouraging architects to lead the process on Rikers prisons, now he is grandstanding about an extreme feature without evidence of any architect involvement, and quoting people that want to blacklist any architects involved with prisons at all. Sounds like typical NYT political grandstanding. Very deft headline--Kimmelman is a paid lobbyist for the prison-real estate-bureaucratic complex.
Again, missing the big picture -- we don't need more politics or AIA statements in architecture, we need more architecture in politics. If an architect is leading prison design, there wouldn't be solitary confinement--unless that person was terrible at design. But it's much easier to get a meaningless AIA statement to achieve some "victory" you can brag to your NYT editors about. "We did it! Prisons are fixed, the AIA said that architects shouldn't do the torture! Pulitzer for me, Pulitzer for you!"
Are you okay Chemex? I'm worried about you, because your simplistic retort is not connected to facts. But if you are "okay" perhaps your deliberately facile argument has contorted you into a pretzel. First, Architecture has always been involved in politics, from codes, to complicity in our - USofA racist creation, going back to one of the Founding Slavertects. Secondly, this, and the other piece you contorted yourself into stupid - Joel Sanders - is not, NOT, about politics; it's about human rights, and the dignity of all people. You should really get that MAGA hat fitting checked, it seems to have cut off your circulation.
I think you mean zoning and land use ordinances and resolutions. Codes deal with basic life safety and health issues. If architects won't do it, engineers will. If engineer's won't do it, builders will. If builders won't do it the military will....etc...
There's politics in building codes. How else do we get abolished planned parenthood clinics?
Anything can be a solitary confinement facility.
.
Try not leaving that place for a quarantined lockdown or so and you'll voluntarily bash your skull in against the glass after a while, especially when you're more of a Mies kind of guy...
it's bizarre when you think about; why wouldn't the AIA be happy to ostracize the group of people involved in designing these.
it's not like anyone gets into architecture with this aspiration - i imagine if i ever met someone doing this work i'd judge them as failures in their career who are just desperate for stable income and too dull to exercise any creativity in pursuing it.
this kind of facilities design is beneath the dignity of decent people and we shouldn't be ashamed to admit this. it's a perverted contrarianism that tries to defend the unwantable in order to avoid pretensions of superiority. (this is a major disease in contemporary american politics down to the local level). ultimately it's a nihilist urge that insists on maintaining that nothing is morally beneath us.
i personally would feel happier knowing that i was in no way associated with the design or construction of these (other than of course the taxes i unwillingly pay) even if it had no impact on the actual practice or implementation of these miserable programs.
ouch....isn't one of the archinect podcasters in this sector?
i have no idea. i'll continue not to associate with them then.
Nope.
The architect in question worked in a firm for a hot minute - 6 months - thinking that they could learn about the process, and alter the thinking. It is too entrenched in retribution, and denigration of the individual, and not about lifting, or rehabilitating those incarcerated. The people connected to the work are just as much of a problem as one would expect, and are not interested in justice, just punishment.
you can change your clients but you'll never change your clients' mind. this is the faustian bargain of architecture which is not openly spoken of in school.
well at least they tried, which is different than yelling about it, so they get some respect points. I think solitary confinement would be better but the you get guys like this - Bronson (one of my favorite movies)
direct link to what I am referencing above specifically - Solitary Fitness by Charles Bronson
The architect of this prison in Rotterdam, Carel Weeber, considers it his best work. Made it bright, cheerful and colourful to make the "residents" feel more at home, like the vibrant architecture and colours in their countries of origin, it even has big plants to remind them of palm trees!...(not kidding).
It even got made into Lego, and yes it sits just across the river of the iconic Van Nelle factory by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
well, you're in a civil society.
true, I'm very lucky
Architecture is about making spaces better for human experience — people who design modern day prisons have no claim to the term and value system, thus are not architects. Just like journalists who only play opportunistic politics are not “architecture critics.” Nobody is trying to make prisons a “better experience” in America, expect maybe a few idealists who don’t get far.
Notice how the article image is a prison from 1829. Probably the last time an architect lead the design of a prison. Look back at the history of prisons, hospitals, and affordable housing to see a gradual decline in both architect involvement and humanist design. Now they all look like self-storage.
If the NYT wants to play the finger pointing game at people who build bad experiences, there’s a long list of developer housing, strip malls, prisons, malls, bus depots, etc. Solitary confinement cells are just the bottom of the barrel in our cultural decay, in which the NYT architecture critic spends his time taking money from developer conferences instead of doing his job. If the NYT wants to be part of the solution, start covering design seriously, not playing opportunistic politics whenever BLM is in the headlines.
Eastern State Penn photos — needs work, but you get the idea. Why is our culture so bankrupt? https://philly.curbed.com/2016/10/27/13426276/eastern-state-penitentiary-vintage-photos
ESP is nobody's idea of a good architectural prison intervention. It was designed around the Panopticon, and when it failed at being a Penitentiary (quickly) it was just another prison, with solitary confinement being one of the founding principles. Just because it's good ruin porn or is cool from the standpoint of form and materials, it's still a shit example of architects participation in prison design.
Maybe, but generally they are converting old prisons and insane asylums into chic hotels now.... can you imagine modern prisons doing the same? No, they are tearing them down. The AIA maybe right to separate architecture design from use. But everyone is missing the big picture ... the decant culture doesn’t really care about human experience at all. Prisons and McMansions and affordable housing human storage are all the same dehumanization
@Chemex, just to be clear, unless you want to haggle over your use of word "led", there are a number of architecture firms that do play a key role in designing prisons. As architect Michael Ford and others made clear here
There are bottom-feeders in every profession willing to dot the i's on monstrosities. In architecture they don't play any "key role."
An AIA wrist slapping isn't going to change much, while expulsion opens up another can of worms (a design dictatorship deciding morality for everyone--which they already are, but don't want to say it). The problem is with the AIA and NCARB. They made their deal with the devil-- $$ for silence. I agree with those saying we should ban license--if the these organization were an optional "extra" they would have more power to say what they wanted. As it is, they are nothing but a corrupt bureaucracy.
“Architects should not contribute their expertise to the most egregious aspects of a system that commits exceptional violence against African-Americans and other minorities.“
Ahhh didn’t know the system forces people to commit atrocities that land them in jail.
Atrocities such as selling loose cigarettes, failing to pay traffic and parking tickets, petty theft, shoplifting, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and many other misdemeanors that lead to fines and probation that, if unpaid or violated, lead to jail.
Kalief Browder
Browder was held at the Rikers Island jail complex, without trial, for allegedly stealing a backpack, between 2010 and 2013, while his family was not allowed to post his bail; he was in solitary confinement for two of these.
Two years after his release, Browder died by suicide at his mother's home. His death was the result of the mental, physical and sexual abuse that he had sustained in prison. His case has been cited by activists campaigning for reform of the New York City criminal justice system and has attracted widespread attention in the years following his death. In 2017, Jay-Z produced a television documentary mini-series titled Time: The Kalief Browder Story. In January 2019, New York City settled a civil lawsuit with the Browder family for $3.3 million.
Many people are in jail, JAIL, for not having the money to post bail; have not been convicted of a crime, yet they are in jail. But, please, buy a white nationalist murderer a Double Whopper with Cheese.
one can only stare vacantly and sigh at the afterwork philosophers who enjoy a bit of recreational cannabis to help them open their minds while suggesting that the system would never persecute people for unserious crimes or technicalities...
'Always important to remember':
source: https://imgur.com/gallery/2HO1...
Kimmelman has done nothing with his platform to change the culture -- where architects could have the say to change the scope of design to rethink how prison connects to housing to cities and everything in between. Instead he wants the AIA to issue a statement to chastise bottom feeders (few of whom are architects) who decide where the toilet is positioned in a confinement chamber so he can score points with the Upper East Side crowd to feel like they did something minor for BLM
What have you done?
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