There's a
lot of messed up prisons around the world. But I found this one
to be the most disturbing. It's a fictional prison
from the show ANDOR and it's designed specifically for convicts
that are says to be labor worthy. It can hold up to 5000 inmates
and they're grouped into these work teams. And day after day, they work together
to assemble these mechanical parts. But no one actually knows
what they're building. The genius part about this prison
is that the control mechanism is built directly
into the architecture. For example, thes tungsten steel floors
can fry you and it can even kill you. It's also designed to make the prisoners think that they're
being constantly watched. And this idea of constant surveillance
makes them incredibly obedient. And as we studied prisons more and more a very disturbing idea started to pop up. The purpose of prisons is to detain
people. Philosophically, it gets a little blurry
when you start thinking about, you know, if the purpose is to punish
or to rehabilitate. But functionally, it's a place
meant to contain prisoners and to keep the rest of society safe. But what happens
when the architecture itself becomes the surveillor,
the detainee and the Punisher? A portion of this video
is sponsored by Milanote. This is the Panopticon. It's an architectural concept for prisons from the 18th century
by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, The word panopticon derives
from the Greek word for all seeing. And it's designed
around a central watchtower where the guards
can always have a view of the prisoners. But the prisoners can't see the guards. This creates the illusion
of being constantly watched, meaning there's a higher chance the prisoners
are going to behave and self-regulate. And the entire facility
can be monitored by just a few guards. So it's not just physical containment. It's kind of a psychological control. And this complete erosion of privacy can lead to anxiety, paranoia
and a loss of dignity. Although this exact design
was never implemented, we've seen variations of this concept
all over the world. Most of these prisons were shut down. But I think this architectural typology
solidified a broader social message
and how society perceives prisoners. It suggests that surveillance and control are essential in managing
criminal behavior, and it led us down a path that focused on punishment
rather than rehabilitation. This is the sound of solitary confinement. This is where they send prisoners
who are considered to be a threat to security or other inmates. It's an empty room. And the average size
something around six by nine feet. It's mostly windowless
without any views or sunlight. Prisoners spend up to 23 hours at a time, and for one or 2 hours a day, they're
let out into another isolated area. And when you listen to stories of inmates
who spent time there, what's amazing is just how quickly
their mental state starts to deteriorate. And to understand why,
let's take a look at another type of detainment. Everything in the room is white, including the floors,
beds, clothing, lights. And even the food is white. The rooms are completely soundproof
and the lights are designed
to remove any kind of shadows. It's called the White Room torture. And it's a form of psycho logical torture
using complete sensory deprivation. And it can leave permanent
psychological damage. One political prisoner
who endured white torture for eight months couldn't
even remember the faces of his parents. And that's because a normal brain needs interaction
and activity for the cells to grow. And studies show that when you remove
stimulation, the brain freaks out. And it can cause anxiety and depression. And because the brain is constantly trying to establish patterns,
it can also lead to hallucinations. In fact, just 15 minutes of sensory
deprivation can lead to anhedonia, which is the complete inability
to feel pleasure. And of course, solitary confinement is
not as controlled as a white room torture. But there's just so many parallels
that it's kind of hard to ignore. Solitary confinement
can also leave permanent psychological and physical damage. And despite the backlash
from multiple human rights organizations, it's still a very common practice in prisons throughout the world,
especially in the U.S.. In all of these cases,
what's really interesting is that architecture is not used
just for physical containment or a functional necessity,
but it's use for psychological dominance. One, two. It seems to have an 818 and you feel it for 814. Otherwise, a714. And I think this is where the dilemma is,
especially for architects. Architecture, at its core
is supposed to serve the public. It's actually ingrained in the profession
and it's even in the air code of ethics. Architects must uphold human rights
in all their professional endeavors and make the built environment accessible to all and respect
the dignity of all people. Yes, we need prisons to protect
the broader public from criminals. But the line becomes kind of blurry
when the architecture is designed specifically
for the purpose of causing harm to another human being. If you've been following this channel,
you probably know that we use Milanote. to organize all of our research,
and they're also sponsoring this video. We use Milanote from the brainstorming,
storyboarding to the final research, and pretty much for anything
that needs to be organized visually. I've even created my own template port with guidelines so that we can copy over
every time we start a new project. Some of our team is remote,
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makes everything so seamless. It's replaced a lot of apps for us
because it's super dynamic and simple. It's definitely improved my workflow, so I think it's going to help you as well,
no matter what industry you're in. It's completely free with no time limit,
so you can sign up using the link in the description
and let me know if you guys like it. This is considered to be one of the most effective prisons
in the world. The Halden Prison in Norway. And when I say effective, I'm
talking about the recidivism rate, which is the tendency for a convict
to re-offend. Halden has a rate of 20%
compared to the 76%, which is the average
for prisons in the US. And of course, there's
a whole lot of factors outside the prison environment
that impact this number. And many prisons in the U.S. are actually operated by private companies
who make a profit from the prison population. So maybe there is an incentive
to keep them in the system. But Halden success is the result of actually a pretty simple idea. Normality, meaning the prison should
resemble life outside as much as possible. They have workshops, music and recording
studios, a worship room. They even have a place
where your family can stay overnight. As of 2012, Halden had 340 staff members for only 228 inmates. That's more than one per prisoner. Kind of the opposite of the idea
of the efficient automated control that we see in Narkina 5. But this prison is in Norway. So is it even a fair comparison? Norway has about a 1/60
of the population of the U.S. The incarceration rate is about 75
per 100,000 people. Within the U.S.,
it's about 700 per 100,000, which is about 9.3 times
higher than Norway. This also means Norway
can spend a lot more money per prisoner. Norway spends around $127,000 per prisoner
a year, compared to just $25,000 in the US. But actually it wasn't always like this. Before the nineties, Norway also had a recidivism rate
similar to the U.S. 70% and a rising prison population. And in fact it was because they found these to be
so not cost effective in the long run that they took a hard
look at their approach. During this time, there was also more
and more research coming out that talked about the limitations of prison models
that are focused primarily on punishment. Also, there was just more awareness
around human rights issues and more awareness
around the treatment of prisoners. And the people actually start
to push for something more ethical. And so all of this led
to some major changes in their approach, where they went from a punitive model
to a rehabilitation model. And that actually had a huge impact
on the architecture. Most of these prisons fall
into one of these categories circular or the panopticon
layout with a central watchtower and salt along the perimeter courtyard
layout with the structure encircling a central open area, triangular
layout with triangular structures connected by a spine linear
layout with rows of buildings stacked along a central spine
x shaped layout with a cross shaped form and the radial layout with branches,
they come off a central point. Apparently they'd rotate the prisoners
to these different arms so they can never familiarize themselves
with where they are and the prison and Andor
would fall into this category. But with the sleeping quarters
at the perimeter, by consolidating all the facilities
into a single continuous building, it maximizes efficiency
because you can limit the circulation to just a few hallways, which means you can be a lot
more efficient with your surveillance. In Narkina 5. This is taken to the street
and even the cells are stripped to the bare essentials and designed
for maximum efficiency and control. All the basic amenities
like beds, toilets, food, water are neatly compact in the cell. This unit gives you access
to unlimited bland food, but if you're productive enough,
you can be rewarded with flavor. There's a screen that displays the amount
of days that's left in your sentence. And while there aren't any doors
there's sensors that ensure that there's only one person
in a cell. Otherwise, you'll get fried. The sanitation areas are right
before you enter the work room. And all of this is to limit
the amount of movement from work directly to your cells. But in
this new model, the facilities are split between the smaller buildings,
surrounded by a natural landscape. All of this is contained in this perimeter
wall, kind of like a campus. This means they can move around rather
than being restricted to the same hallways day after day. But what does that mean for surveillance? Historically, security
was achieved through the architecture, through the spatial layout,
with windowless walls, locks, fences,
even cameras and CC systems. Let's call this static security. But it usually comes at the expense of
creating spaces that are kind of inhumane. Narkina 5 prison
while is a very technologically advanced. It still operates
on the principles of static security, which allows them to have this insane
1: 100 guard to prisoner ratio. But despite all the rigorous physical
and psychological control mechanisms, static security failed to spot
the communication between the prisoners. And this was potentially an oversight
on the architect who maybe tried to add a little bit
too much humanity to this prison. Technically, if we're strictly abiding
by the principles of static security, these windows are not necessary. In fact,
it became the fatal flaw of this design because allowing them to look outside
the inmates could get a sense of the scale of the prison and understand
just how many of them there were and maybe even start
to communicate with each other. So without a design,
that's 100% bulletproof. Static
security has some major limitations, especially because it can antagonize
and potentially provoke the inmates. But in Halden and in the other humane prisons that we looked at,
they've come up with a layer of security that's invisible, that allows them
to reduce the amount of static security. At Halden they call this dynamic security. But essentially it's the relationship
between the inmates and the staff created intentionally
through workshops and activities. But it only works if we flip the rule of the architecture
from a surveiller to a facilitator by breaking up the massing
and creating a diversity of spaces. You facilitate movement and interaction
by using colors and warm materials. It helps regulate mood and create a sense of comfort
by placing windows strategically for daylight and views and even views
onto the cells of other inmates. You reduce stress
and improve mental health. They can track the days and the seasons,
and it gives the inmates a psychological connection
to the outside world in this very constrained environment. The prisoner actually built a very
intimate relationship with their space, and it can either facility growth or lead to a complete decline. And beyond this, I think our approach to
prisons says a lot about us as a society. Do we believe in the potential
for change in every person? Is there a room for dignity
and healing and redemption, even for the worst criminals? What do you guys think?
Let me know in the comments.
