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Real-Life Panopticons: Deserted Dystopian Prisons in Cuba

16 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

panopticon central guard tower

Imagine life inside a ring of cells around a central watchtower, where you can never be sure whether you are being observed. This surreal setup became an extreme reality under dictator Gerardo Machado on the Cuban Isla de la Juventud.

panopticon prison complex exterior

One of the creepiest concepts in the history of architecture, the Panopticon model of incarceration design proposes keeping prisoners forever on edge, fearing their watchers.

panopticon real life cuba

Both Fidel and Raul Castro spent time within the walls of this Presidio Modelo (Model Prison) complex, which, at its peak, held over 8,000 political prisoners. Apparently they found the approach sufficiently effective, since the Castro regime kept them open as well.

panopticon island cuba set

panopticon gathering space center

Originally the vision of Jeremy Bentham (and later nightmare of philosopher Michel Foucault), this 18th-Century idea was never realized in its creator’s lifetime but found expression in many structures after his death.

panopticon model prison diagrams

panopticon interior cell details

While there are other Panopticon-inspired prisons around the world, this complex in Cuba may be the most literal and direction realization of the original diagrams. It features circular structures and guardhouses in the center of a vast open spaces, all to keep residents in a perpetual state of uncertainty (images via Jason Florio and Wikipedia).

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Posted in Creativity

Nautical Architectures: Electrified Reefs to Waterfall Prisons

10 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

ocean artificial reef context

Like a speculative fiction novelist, Margot Krasojevic creates fantastical work that manages to combine real design challenges of our times with futuristic solutions. Whatever your position on their feasibility, these improbable concepts are daring and their renderings marvelous.

ocean reef abstract visualization

Krasojevic‘s previous rock climber resort proposed unusual accommodations only accessible to the extremely adventurous – those who could and would scale cliffs to stay there. In this newest pair of projects, she tackles another harsh and dangerous environment: the planet’s oceans.

ocean surface modeling structure

ocean reef topside model

ocean reef rendering exterior

One of these two projects, an Artificial Reef Station, serves a pair of radically different but essential functions, stimulating coral growth underwater while defending nearby shores from tsunamis.

ocean speculative floating architecture

ocean reef generative process

The first task, promoting coral, is accomplished via solar panels that introduce low-level electrical currents to the surrounding area (not enough to shock divers). This creates a field around the steel frame that condenses dissolved calcium carbonate out of seawater.

ocean plan overview scale

ocean reef with diver

The second goal, diffusing tsunamis, is achieved by virtue of the shape of the station. The organic breaks up incoming waves via complex geometries, themselves derived from chaos-driven mathematical models of wave behavior.