San Vittore. Space for beauty

How can the prison spaces be redesigned to become places of meeting, interaction and socialization for inmates and officers?

We started from the call for beauty as a fundamental human right, both for the inmates and for the agents, educators and operators who work inside the walls.
In order to imagine solutions that meet the needs of the people who live and work in San Vittore, we followed a participatory design approach, listening to the needs expressed by the actors inside and outside the prison, in order to enter into dialogue with the citizens and reconnect the prison with the rest of the city.

The Francesco di Cataldo – San Vittore prison was designed following the panopticon model of prison architecture, whose circular structure aims to minimize the efforts for the surveillance of inmates. The prison is located in the heart of Milan but is separated from the rest of the city, acting as a sort of impermeable enclave.

The first step consisted of mapping resources, actors, skills, and talents available. To imagine solutions responding to the needs of those who live and work in San Vittore, we adopted a “participatory” design approach. We listened to the needs expressed by both internal and external actors to the prison to engage in dialogue with citizens, inmates, and non-inmates. We conducted one-to-one interviews with detainees, agents, educators, operators, volunteers, neighborhood residents, workers, experts in prison matters, and representatives of cultural activities in the area.

In response to the needs that emerged, we developed six project briefs to be delivered to the involved architecture studios, identifying three areas of intervention for the redesign of spaces: community and living spaces, interaction with the city, and recreation and well-being.

The six briefs work on the following aspects:

1. Meeting and interview area
2. Talent campus: vocational school and multitheque
3. Community department space: corridors, activity rooms, and walking courtyards
4. Common open space: outdoor relaxation and sports area for agents, operators, and citizens; flexible and versatile space (canteen and bar)
5. Privacy and relaxation in the barracks
6. Cultural and event space

The impact of the human-centred method on the redesign of San Vittore’s spaces is the focus of “Designing New Futures”, Emanuel Ingrao’s talk at TedX Modena 2021.