OOIIO Architecture recently has designed the Female Prison in Iceland.

How to build a prison that doesn’t look like a prison?

For designing this project we decided to start asking to people that lives and work on real prisons. That was the first step on the design process!. And we end up with the conclusion that the worse thing of living on a prison is to have the feeling that you are actually on a prison.

Female Prison in Iceland, render courtesy OOIIO Architecture

So we decided to design a prison that doesn’t look like a prison, forgetting about dark spaces, small cells, and ugly grey concrete walls.

On the contrary, we based the building design on the natural light, open spaces, and natural green materials like peat, grass and flowers.

Female Prison in Iceland, render courtesy OOIIO Architecture

Also, instead of packing all the program on a singular big building that could remember a typical repressive old prison, we decided to break it on several small and more human scale connected pavilions.

A prison is a building with a complex and rich program, is like a small village, with hospital, schools, church, theater, etc. that must work precisely, and at the same time the building must host 3 different types of inhabitants: prisoners, prison workers and occasional visitors. Each of those users have a very specific circulations and building areas where they can or cannot use.

Female Prison in Iceland - Site plan, drawing courtesy OOIIO Architecture

So when we were thinking on the building we had the feeling that we were designing the cogs of a big watch, a building like a gear assembly, were all the pieces must be on the right place to make it efficient and functional, but with the best possible relation with the natural light and the exterior views, to increase the freedom feeling.

Female Prison in Iceland - Typical section, drawing courtesy OOIIO Architecture

The construction process will be cheap, quick and clean. We will use a prefabricated concrete panels system that will allow to build everything on a short time, with low carbon emissions, and low cost, which would be carefully designed to generate the highest level of natural light on the interior (important for a country like Iceland with short sun hours along the year), and able to hold a interesting natural façade.

Female Prison in Iceland - Concept, drawing courtesy OOIIO Architecture

Studying the construction tradition in Iceland for design the building, we discover a very interesting and clever way of getting cheap isolations system for buildings that the Iceland inhabitants used on the past for farms and remote buildings. They cover their wooden buildings with a thick peat layer, which is very common in this country, and let the grass to grow over it, so after some weeks they generate a perfect ecological cold isolation that works really good for the hard Icelandic weather. We though on a contemporary reinterpretation for this façade concept.

We designed metal cages that would be full of peat, that could be moved and placed on site quickly, to be hold all around the prison facades. On this cages we would plant different local flowers and grass, so we will generate a cheap green wall, based on the Icelandic tradition, but contemporary, prefabricated for easier construction, that changes with the seasons, making the life on the prison less monotonous and more human and natural related.

+ Project facts

Project Name: Female Prison in Iceland.
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland.
Area: 9000 m2.
Architect: OOIIO Architecture
Project Team: Joaquin Millan Villamuelas, Cristina Viacario, Belen Gomez, Lurdes Martinez, Javier Urrutia, Ignacio Jimeno, Kristinn Olafsonn.

+ All images and drawings courtesy OOIIO Architecture

American design studio NunoErin recently has launched the new Interactive Light Products line at NeoCon 2012 this week in Chicago.

Interactive Light, image courtesy NunoErin

An imaginative collection of furniture that offers unforgettable sensory experiences. Each piece from this line features unique interactive light behaviors that respond to the electrical field within the human body. When softly touched , the Interactive Light Products emit mesmerizing light that shimmers and responds beneath your fingers , awakening an inner desire to touch , explore and play. The collection's elegant forms reflect a sense of simplicity that is brought to life with translucent solid surface. Each piece features a renewable finish , durable construction , and user-friendly installation.

Interactive Light Products: solid surface , wood , full spectrum LED's , AC adapter 100-240 VAC , indoor use only.

Interactive Light, image courtesy NunoErin

Interactive Light, image courtesy NunoErin

+ Dimension

Sparkle Bench – 64 LEDs , 64 sensors , 6W (max 18W)
Interactive Diamond Bench – 80 LEDs , 80 sensors , 7.5W (max 22.5W)
Sparkle Table – 160 LEDs , 160 sensors , 15W (max 45W)

+ For your Business Cards Printing needs, we recommends PrintRunner.

SNITT is a cross disciplinary collaboration between architects, product-, furniture-, industrial, graphic- and stage/set- designers.

SNITT, image courtesy ctrl+n

The initial brief for the project was to design an installation that could be utilized in areas accessible by the public, where people are either passing through or in need of a quiet area to sit down and take a rest.

The installation emphasizes and encourages both activities. However, a key component of the project was the intention to provide shelter for individuals and small groups who wish to establish a semi private environment in a crowded room or outdoor area, which we feel absent in many public spaces today.

SNITT, image courtesy ctrl+n

At a 1:1 scale, SNITT appears as a bench on one side and a curtain/screen wall on the other. From an architectural point of view it is important to highlight that the object could be perceived at a different scale, where the screen wall is a scaled down model of a building façade. The façade then has the possibility be integrated with furniture, lighting and decorated printed glass, in the division between interior and exterior.

SNITT, image courtesy ctrl+n

SNITT is a project with many "facets", a result of the cross-disciplinary design team behind the project. The different design backgrounds introduce their distinct methods of working and perceiving design, which results in a mixture of interpretations for the project. SNITT can be a furniture piece, a 3-dimensional canvas, a façade system or an element that encourages movement and semi private shelter in the public arena.

SNITT, image courtesy ctrl+n

Event information

SNITT was part of the exhibition taking place at the Clerkenwell Design Week 22-24th of May 2012 in the “The House of Detention”.

The Clerkenwell Design Week had more than 24.000 registered visitors during its event in 2011 and the organizer expects an even
higher number of visitors this year. (Source: clerkenwelldesignweek.com)

+ Visit the official website to see more images.

+ Project facts

Name of Project: SNITT
Project managers: Johnathon Lloyd Little (NOR), Kirstie Little (ENG)

Architects/ designers/ contributors:
ctrl+n and KONTUR arkitektur + konstruksjon as (architects, NOR)
Tuyo designstudio (product / furniture design, NOR)
Kirstie Little (graphic design, UK)
Center Stage (stage and industrial design, NOR)

Event homepage: http://www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com/