NOTES
ON PRISON

FAQ
Dictionary
Manual of Archive
Against Carceral Architecture

CZECH VERSION

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CCTV operates as a central instrument of carceral power, shaping behavior, space, and hierarchy through both technological and human surveillance. While presented as a neutral tool of safety, it reinforces asymmetrical control, contributes to the criminalization of marginalized groups, and erodes privacy. Tracing its expansion from prison architecture into public space, the analysis reveals how surveillance infrastructures automate state power and extend carcerality beyond institutional walls.

hearth / enclosure
public space , Panopticon, electricity, factories

COLLECTIVITY
noticing

Collectivity and privacy are systematically suppressed within carceral spaces through architectural design and institutional regulation. Examining the spatial strategies used to isolate, monitor, and control, the text reveals how prisons prevent both individual autonomy and collective resistance. At the same time, it traces forms of resilience that emerge within and against these structures, extending the critique to broader social and political contexts.

hearth / roof
resistance, factories, sound, public space

SOUNDSCAPE
radical noticing

Conceived as an immaterial landscape, the soundscape shapes our sensory experience of space and serves as a medium of power through its material substrates. Within prisons, the deliberate use of hard, non‑absorbent materials amplifies noise to enforce control, while the porous nature of sound itself enables inmates to resist and communicate beyond visual boundaries.

hearth / roof
movement , sound, public space

TIME
critical noticing

Time and space function as core mechanisms of incarceration, structuring both control and confinement. Through repetition and regulated routines, prisons enforce a temporal discipline that shapes the lived experience of those inside. At the same time, practices of resistance reveal how time can be reclaimed as a tool for subversion and abolition.

hearth
repetition, resistance, borders

(IN)VISIBILITY
critical noticing

Power operates through (in)visibility, shaping both the architecture and perception of carceral systems. From the historical shift of punishment into hidden spaces to the contemporary displacement of prisons to urban peripheries, visibility becomes a strategic tool of control and legitimization. This analysis explores how carceral practices rely on spatial, visual, and social forms of (in)visibility, reinforcing structural inequalities while obscuring the mechanisms of repression.

roof / hearth
public space, Panopticon, sound , slaughter house, narrative

THRESHOLDS
noticing

Thresholds function as material and symbolic markers of transition, structuring the experience of space, control, and identity within carceral systems. In the prison context, they regulate movement and enforce institutional discipline, while beyond prison walls, similar mechanisms operate in welfare offices, schools, and border regimes.

roof / base
separation, movement, borders

VERTICALITY
critical noticing

Verticality has long symbolised power, from religious monuments to capitalist skyscrapers and contemporary surveillance technologies. Through the lens of watchtowers, drones, and architectural forms, the text explores how height functions as a means of control. Vertical space emerges as a key instrument in the production and maintenance of authority.

roof / base / hearth
concrete, metal, visibility, private property

ZONING
noticing

Zoning, repetition, and the enclosing architectures of the prison do more than contain—they vibrate with a slow violence that organizes bodies, affects, and atmospheres. The built environment acts as both actor and witness, modulating intensities of power, vulnerability, and control. Carceral architecture thus emerges as a participant in the wider choreography of dispossession, shaping not just what can be done, but what can be felt.

roof / hearth / base
movement, electricity, separation, borders, slaughter house, zoo

BARS
radical noticing

Prison bars operate as material agents that structure visibility, authority, and confinement, both within prison walls and in the wider social landscape. In dialogue with new materialist thought, metal is revealed not as inert but as vibrant – resonant, malleable, and politically charged. Through artistic and critical interventions, the solid forms of carcerality are refigured as sites of resistance and transformation.

enclosure / base
metal, private property , zoo, separation, visibility

LANDSCAPE
radical noticing

Prison siting reflects political and economic strategies that extend carceral power into rural and post-industrial landscapes. Through spatial displacement, marginalized populations are removed from urban visibility and embedded into infrastructures of punishment under the guise of economic development. The analysis traces how these geographic tactics mask social control as rehabilitation, and calls for reimagining carceral land use through abolitionist and community-centered frameworks.

enclosure / base
separation, visibility, factories

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.