Dr Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
The Architecture, Culture & Tectonics Research Group warmly invites you to attend their Wednesday Seminar on 06 November at 13:15. Refreshments on arrival.
Abstract
In 1978 Robin Evans wrote an essay on corridors ("Figures, Doors and Passages"). In 1982 he published Fabrication of Virtue, one of the most important books on prison architecture. Evans' essay on corridors identified the architectural significance of this ingenious spatial mechanism, and traced an historical development from plans of social engagement and sensorial disruption to the corridor as a mechanism that enabled the discretions of room function and social class. This paper is interested in exploring what Evans incomprehensively didn't discuss - namely, the relationship between the development of the corridor and prison design. The omission appears mysterious given that, he began collecting material on prisons as early as 1969, publishing an article on Bentham’s panopticon in 1971, and spending the three years prior to 1981 revising his dissertation for the production of the book, in the period immediately following the publication of his 1978 essay on the corridor.