NOTES
ON PRISON

FAQ
Dictionary
Manual of Archive
Against Carceral Architecture

CZECH VERSION

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The prison cell has evolved from a site of moral introspection to a standardized microspace designed to meet only essential physiological needs. Drawing on visual parallels with animal confinement, the analysis reveals how carceral capitalism generates profit through techniques of enclosure and control across species.

base
slaughter house, zoo, separation

INTERWEAVE
noticing

Carceral logic extends beyond prison walls, infiltrating social institutions, public space, and everyday life through spatial design, surveillance, and structural inequality. Challenging the illusion of separation between the inside and outside, the text traces how practices of control and exclusion shape both the physical and ideological fabric of society. By drawing on abolitionist thought, it calls for collective reimagining and resistance to the expanding reach of carcerality.

base / roof
membrane, borders, public space

PERIMETER WALL
critical noticing

The prison wall functions as both material threshold and symbolic partition, delineating the boundary between the carceral interior and the ostensibly free exterior. Though its form has shifted with changing technologies and ideologies, it continues to mediate visibility, movement, and power. As carceral logics seep outward through its porous edges, the wall reveals itself less as a barrier than as a recursive structure–reiterated across bodies, infrastructures, and everyday life.

base / enclosure
membrane, separation, concrete , private property

WATCHTOWER
critical noticing

The prison watchtower is examined as a key element of carceral infrastructure and a manifestation of state power. While technological advances have rendered its practical function increasingly redundant, the tower endures as a visible marker of surveillance, control, and ideological authority. Its continued presence communicates security to the public while reproducing systemic violence and socio-economic exclusion.

base / enclosure / hearth
visibility , Panopticon

The online archive NOTES ON PRISON forms part of a diploma project undertaken at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, within Studio Architecture I. The overarching aim of the archive is to present and describe the practices, strategies, and associated architectural matter through which power is exercised within the prison system. These practices and spatial elements are subsequently revealed within different contexts and typologies.

The project’s political dimension contributes to the discourse on prison abolition, while also serving as a professional appeal to the architectural community: to learn to recognise spaces designed for oppression and violence, and to refuse further participation in their production. Instead, it calls for the use of imagination as a design tool, encouraging the creation of a society grounded in care and social equality.

At the top of the webpage, readers will find (1) a list of frequently asked questions related to prison abolition, (2) a glossary of terms, and (3) a manual explaining the structure of the online archive, including its categories, tags, and entries.