NOTES
ON PRISON
IT TAKES FEW SECONDS TO LOAD THE DIAGRAM
The manual below serves as an introduction to the framework of the archive’s website – its structure and the interconnections envisioned by the author. However, this outline is in no way intended to limit the autonomy of individual users who wish to navigate the archive in their own way. It should be seen merely as a description of the organisational structure, not as a guide to be followed.
The archive is built upon contributions that investigate the practices, strategies, and architectural matter of the prison. Individual entries are interlinked through categories, tags, and methods, collectively forming a complex network. A visualisation of this network appears on the landing page of the online archive. By clicking on specific nodes, users may enter the archive via selected contributions. Clicking once again on NOTES ON PRISON in the website header will return you to the homepage, where you can browse, filter, and search across all contributions.
Each entry consists of an analytical-critical text on a specific theme. In most cases, the text is accompanied by visual documentation (collages, photographs, maps, etc.) and, in some instances, also by audio or video material.
Every contribution is categorised under one of four categories: hearth, roof, enclosure, and base. These categories are a free association of the canonical typology introduced in The Four Elements of Architecture (1851) by theorist and architect Gottfried Semper. 1 In this work, Semper returns to the origins of architecture in an attempt to explain the meaning and mutable nature of architectural form. He identifies four fundamental elements of architecture: hearth (fire), roof (shelter), enclosure (wall), and mound (platform or substructure).
The archive draws upon Semper’s theory primarily because of its emphasis on returning to the material origins of architecture and questioning what needs those materials address. In the context of this archive, however, the focus is not on architecture as a coherent field, but rather on the typology of the prison–and, by extension, the construction of power and surveillance.
The first element –the hearth– according to Semper, represents warmth, nourishment, and safety. It is the central point around which people (and the three remaining elements) gather. In the context of the prison, this category comprises entries that explore power and surveillance, the very core of the prison typology. The second element –the roof– refers to the act of sheltering and protection from weather. Technically, it holds a space or structure together. Entries classified under this category are abstracted to a tectonic level and represent various strategies and principles that define the prison as a site of control, supervision, and repression. These practices sustain the operation of the prison and they shelter the typology. The third element –the enclosure– is, for Semper, primarily rooted in textile production, and refers to the wall as a visual boundary and a vertical plane of protection. In the context of the prison, entries in this category engage with the tactile qualities of the site—that is, its visual language. The final element –the base– represents, in Semper’s theory, a break free from the earthly realm. In this archive, the category addresses moments of separation and disconnection from society, both spatially and temporally.
These categories thus serve as a means to group contributions and show their overlaps. However, the categories remain permeable through the use of tags. These tags indicate the level at which a contribution operates within critical analysis. The process of noticing is divided into three progressive degrees. The first level (noticing) involves conventional observation – registering things that are immediately visible and whose function is clearly expressed. Often, these elements are taken at face value; for example, their repressive function is neither hidden nor challenged. The second level (critical noticing) introduces a more critical lens, identifying strategies and components that are not immediately visible or require specific knowledge to decipher. 2 The third and final level (radical noticing) approaches these elements with a radical view toward emancipation and transformation—how they might be reappropriated or reconfigured in order to prevent their easy exploitation by mechanisms of power. 3
A key aim of the archive is to raise awareness about the scope of control and surveillance exercised by the state and, more broadly, by the capitalist system over society through built environment. For this reason, contributions are also tagged with references to other typologies or contexts in which similar strategies, practices, and material formations appear. It is here that the narrative of objects and principles is challenged—where the roles of those deemed as a "threat" (i.e. criminals) are persistently inverted and questioned.
The red thread that runs through the contributions is highlighted by the introductory diagram, which is a metaphor for the far-reaching influence of state and private practices that serve only global profit.
1 Gottfried Semper, The Four Elements of Architecture. Available at: https://www.geocities.ws/mitchellmosesstudio/fourelements.pdf accessed on 1 Apr 2025.
2 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Durham 2010, p. 5.
3 Term taken from the book Laura Scovell Gardener – Daphne Mhajer Va Pesaran (ed), Radical Fashion Exercises: A Workbook of Modes and Methods. Amsterdam 2023.
ADÉLA VAVŘÍKOVÁ
THEORETICAL TEXT
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.