Concept
Re-Thinking Prison explores the potential of virtual spaces to rehabilitate inmates by offering environments that encourage emotional growth and learning. Inspired by Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, this project envisions three distinct worlds—Color, Nature, and Minimalist—as transformative experiences for inmates. Each world is designed to guide inmates through emotional introspection, mental restoration, and eventual reintegration into society.
Color World: Inspired by art’s ability to soothe and provoke thought, this world provides a vivid, dreamlike landscape where inmates can reflect on their actions in a soft and comforting environment.
Nature World: Harnessing the restorative power of nature, this space fosters learning and dynamic emotional growth, helping inmates process their errors in a supportive setting.
Minimalist World: As a final step toward societal reintegration, this world introduces calming, structured geometries reminiscent of classical architecture, blending the abstract with reality.
Pseudocode & computational tools
Each world leverages a different computational technique to shape its unique environment. Below is an overview of the tools and methods employed:
1. Color World
- Tools: Point Cloud, Perlin Noise, Swarm Agents
- Process:
- Generate a reduced mesh of Alcatraz and smooth it using Catmull-Clark subdivision.
- Create a point cloud over the smoothed geometry, defining brush points for a painted landscape.
- Apply Perlin Noise to introduce height and depth, embedding the prison in an immersive, artistic terrain.
- Use a swarm agent to simulate the inmate’s wandering path across the geometry.
2. Nature World
- Tools: Dynamic Relaxation (Kangaroo), L-System
- Process:
- Generate tree-like geometries using dynamic relaxation in Kangaroo for realistic growth simulations.
- Create flower structures using L-system rules with icospheres to simulate organic, fractal-like growth patterns.
3. Minimalist World
- Tools: Wave Function Collapse (WFC), Monoceros
- Process:
- Define slots for architectural modules based on a parametric grid that populates the Alcatraz mesh.
- Use Wave Function Collapse (WFC) in Monoceros to aggregate modules according to rules governing placement of elements like stairs, arches, and trees.
- Adapt modules to the parametric grid, ensuring cohesion and modularity.
Form finding & iterations
The development of each world involved iterative adjustments to achieve optimal geometries and interactions while ensuring performance efficiency. Key parameters explored include:
- Seed Variations: Changing randomization seeds to create diverse forms and patterns.
- Point Density: Modifying the density of point clouds to adjust the level of detail in the Color world.
- Perlin Noise Settings: Tweaking frequency and amplitude to fine-tune terrain variations.
- Kangaroo Forces: Adjusting dynamic relaxation parameters to achieve natural-looking tree structures.
- Module Rules: Refining aggregation rules for WFC to balance order and variability in the Minimalist world.
Each iteration was evaluated for its emotional and aesthetic resonance with the project’s conceptual goals and its computational efficiency.
Project
The journey through the virtual prison is designed as an emotional and cognitive transformation:
Color World: Inmates are immersed in a vibrant, artistic representation of Alcatraz. The soft, surreal landscape invites reflection and fosters creativity, helping inmates begin their journey of self-improvement.
Nature World: Inmates transition into an environment rich with natural forms—trees and flowers—symbolizing growth and renewal. The connection to nature improves mental well-being and facilitates introspection.
Nature World: Inmates transition into an environment rich with natural forms—trees and flowers—symbolizing growth and renewal. The connection to nature improves mental well-being and facilitates introspection.
Through these carefully crafted virtual experiences, inmates are not only guided toward emotional healing but also equipped with tools for reintegration into society. This project reimagines prisons as spaces for transformation, proving that architecture and technology can work hand-in-hand to foster meaningful change.
References
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1495–1505 attributed to Hieronymus Bosch
Les Nymphéas, 1914-1926 by Claude Monet
Credits
Re-Thinking Prison is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture and Desing – 2024-2025 by the students Andrés Espinosa and Aymeric Brouez during the course MaCAD 24/25 Complex Forming with Hesham Shawqy, James McBennett and Eva Papaspyrou
