Juvenile detention unit

Location: Bergen, Norway

Time: 2008

Status: Feasibility study

Client: The Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service

Photo Credit: manthey kula

Recognition: Exhibitied at the New Nordic exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Project for a new spatial organization of a juvenile detention unit in an abandoned building at the Bjørgvin prison. The existing two-story structure is suggested transformed into a three story interactive prison.

The youth facility constitutes a small community of inmates and staff. The cell is designed such that the inhabitant, by way of flexible sliding doors, can affect his or her relation to the communal space outside the cell. From being a closed entity the cell can gradually unfold and such work as an instrument for communication and engagement.

Space – such as a prison cell – should not be used as punishment, but rather as vehicle for the individual in his/her journey back to the society.