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Jail, a correctional facility for the Northern Cape

Part 2 Project 2005
Giselle Löb
Lester Chung
Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria | South Africa
The problems facing South Africa's overcrowded prisons are increasing at such an alarming pace that exploding consequences are predicted.
Jail. Architecture is the prison. This facility aims to EMPHASIZE THE CONTRAST BETWEEN LIBERTY AND CAPTIVITY, to create a longing and knowledge for freedom and what freedom is: using architecture to influence the physiological and psychological aspects of the human mind and body.

Emphasis is placed on FEELINGS AND SENSES EXPERIENCED within different spaces in and about structure; FROM CONFINEMENT, CAPTIVITY AND ENCLOSURE TO A SENSUAL FREEDOM AND OPENNESS, creating an appreciation of space and freedom and uncensored movement.

Giselle Löb
Lester Chung


In a country regrettably with an increasing crime rate and overcrowded prisons, this is a particularly relevant project. The student chose a robust setting – the foot of the Hantamberg just north of Calvinia, a town located in the Northern Cape in the Great Karoo – that is sufficiently isolated to emphasise the offender’s lack of liberty. The design avoids a monolithic approach an offers a hierarchical spatial experience through various levels of enclosure. In the barren landscape the architecture is reminiscent of North African fortified towns, a type of urbanism that is strangely appropriate in this context.

Tutor(s)

2005
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