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The Sacred Reformatory

Part 1 Project 2010
Ardi Rexhepi
 University of Brighton | UK
‘The Sacred Reformatory’ is a speculative project which stretches existing ethical boundaries to create a world where sentenced criminals are recruited into a cult like faction. Through physical and psychological procedures that hijack cognitive mechanisms, members of the facility are re-conditioned to change their existing belief systems.

Based in one of the hidden courtyard spaces in Brick Lane’s urban fabric, the Sacred Reformatory is a panoptic building where the architecture facilitates the expression of power, control and authority. The facility is a centralised building with a tall watch tower in its heart, acting as the ‘altar’ and the physical manifestation of the ‘leader’. Within are a series of spaces designed to survey and maintain the various aspects of the reformatory. The altar is separated from the rest of the building, creating segregation between the staff and the prisoners. The combination of its spatial arrangement, the reflective surface and the outer layer of cables, forces a physical and visual disconnection onto the prisoners where they are never sure if someone is watching them or not, initially inducing a sense of paranoia and later a need for expression of devotion.

Around the altar are a series of carefully arranged, interlinking corridors that comprise of two spaces, one floating within the other. The floating space becomes a series of cables, stretched within the larger container and fashioned by the physical limitations of the user.

Extended beyond the maximum physical reach, structurally sound walls provide support for the cables and the floating platform. The gap between the cables and the outer barrier becomes the psychological barrier. The various combinations between the two barriers create a variety of architectural conditions that fulfil various requirements of the programme.

The overall proposal sits within a very confined space. It is overlooked on all sides and is in very close proximity with the existing buildings. With this in mind, the building is designed to have minimal impact on accessibility, rights to light and privacy of the neighbouring buildings. The original Brick Lane facade is retained to keep the proposal hidden from the outside world.


Ardi Rexhepi

‘The Sacred Reformatory’ provides a conjectural framework for an architectural proposal rooted in an exceptional reading of the inter-relationships between religion, space, programme and hierarchy.

The project sets up a series of analyses to inform the creation of a programmatic logic for a typological hybrid. Neither prison nor cathedral, ‘The Sacred Reformatory’ establishes a structural, material and circulatory system from which space, light and hierarchy can be ordered and manipulated to form a Piranesi-like installation in Brick Lane’s hidden courtyards. Like a medieval church playing host to smaller-scale domestic structures, the reformatory nestles within the constraints of the site; creating an awesome internal architectural mechanism with the lightest of touches on Brick Lane itself.

Unusual in an undergraduate student, Ardi’s work is rigorously structured, exquisitely drawn and terrifyingly executed.

Nick Hayhurst
Tamsie Thomson

Tutor(s)
Nick Hayhurst
2010
Project Summary - Panoptic architecture facilitating the expression of power, control and authority.
Brief and Initial Analysis - Left: Deficiencies in existing reformatory systems and proposed intervention. Right: Psychology of religion and susceptibility of cognitive mechanisms.
Systematic Behavioural Process - Narrative diagram showing each step of cognitive reconstruction, preservation and social integration of the criminals.
Spatial Syntax Diagrams - Left: Conversion of narrative diagram into the spatial and circulation diagram. Right: Progression through geometrical hierarchy analysis of centralised buildings.
Spatial Concepts - Spatialising the diagram in ritualistic context.
Site Analysis - Left: Exploration of the urban fabric of Brick Lane, the hidden nature of the site, financial feasibility of the project and initial impact on immediate site context. Right: Rights to light and sunlight analysis.
Spatial Arrangement and Site Integration - Using architectural conditions, spatial and ritualistic hierarchy and site context as means of arrangement of the spatial syntax diagram on to the site.
Architectural Organisation of Ritualistic Proceedings - Transformation of the final syntax diagram into an architectural concept based on a series of carefully arranged double layered corridors facilitating the architectural needs of the programme.
Sectional Development of Corridors - Transformation of psychological and physical barriers through architectural conditions.
Atmospheric perspectives - Testing of architectural conditions based on criteria set by architectural organisation of ritualistic proceedings and sectional development of corridors.
Resolved Section - Drawing showing the main structural strategy and the relationship between the two barriers.
Resolved Plan - Drawing expressing the careful and rigorous arrangement of the corridors and their panoptic relationship to the altar.
Final Organisation of Ritualistic Proceedings - The circulation platform and physical barrier represented in their context and materiality.
Proposal Overview - Impact on the immediate and wider urban context. Proposal designed to have minimal impact on accessibility, rights to light and privacy of neighbouring buildings. Original facade is retained to hide the proposal from the outside world.
Internal Perspective - Main Theatre space, viewed by criminal entering the facility for the first time. Full religious hierarchy is expressed through light, proximity to alter, relative height and form of the physical and psychological barriers.
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