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School or Prison

schoolprison.com

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Re: School or Prison

#21

Post by dooglius »

jhardy54 wrote: post #14
paulpauper wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is because tall, rectangular buildings maximize volume to surface area, whether a hospital school or prison. It is not a form of social control or domination. it is more efficient this way. A one-story hospital would be prohibitively expensive to build in an urban area, and it is not like healthcare is not already too expensive.

> tall, rectangular buildings maximize volume to surface area, I imagine that you mean that tall buildings maximize ground area, and that most property is rectangular. The way to maximize volume to surface area is to build spheres, or cubes if you're forced to remain rectilinear, but tall buildings optimize for ground area.

You shouldn't be downvoted, this is correct

Re: School or Prison

#22

Post by meekrohprocess »

A fun anecdote from my youth near a US seaboard was that our elementary and middle school buildings were designed by the same person who designed a few prisons around the area.

When I bounced around cities later in life, I was surprised at how many of my peers said the same thing as a conversation piece.

Maybe they used the same governmental bidding process. "Needed: a building. One food preparation and eating area. Hallways suitable for lining up and proceeding in rows with many small rooms. One yard with sporting facilities."

Re: School or Prison

#23

Post by adamjb »

philwelch wrote: post #10
joe_the_user wrote: post #2

It's part of the larger situation that the buildings created by large bureaucracies all look about the same.

It’s an architectural style called “brutalism”, which has the predominant aesthetic of “a boot stamping on a human face forever”.

Ah yes, neoclassical facades, the defining feature of brutalism.

https://res.cloudinary.com/schoolprison/7_pexlbe.jpg

Re: School or Prison

#24

Post by gpm »

jhardy54 wrote: post #14
paulpauper wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is because tall, rectangular buildings maximize volume to surface area, whether a hospital school or prison. It is not a form of social control or domination. it is more efficient this way. A one-story hospital would be prohibitively expensive to build in an urban area, and it is not like healthcare is not already too expensive.

> tall, rectangular buildings maximize volume to surface area, I imagine that you mean that tall buildings maximize ground area, and that most property is rectangular. The way to maximize volume to surface area is to build spheres, or cubes if you're forced to remain rectilinear, but tall buildings optimize for ground area.

Surface area in this case refers to surface area of the earth, while volume refers to volume of the structures placed on the earth.

OP is entirely correct, and no one misunderstood the point OP was making. You are simultaneously being needlessly pedantic, and less than charitable by needlessly interpreting inconsequential ambiguities in OPs sentence in a way that would have made them incorrect.

Someone else commented on the downvotes on your post being wrong, the above is why I downvoted you.

Re: School or Prison

#26

Post by lukifer »

paulpauper wrote: post #11
cyberbanjo wrote: post #4

Is it surprising that the cellular prison, with its regular chronologies, forced labour, its authorities of surveillance and registration, its experts in normality, who continue and multiply the functions of the judge, should have become the modern instrument of penality? Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons? Michel Foucault

this is because tall, rectangular buildings maximize volume to surface area, whether a hospital school or prison. It is not a form of social control or domination. it is more efficient this way. A one-story hospital would be prohibitively expensive to build in an urban area, and it is not like healthcare is not already too expensive.

Foucault is explicitly referring to norms of behavior, not the shapes of buildings:

  - regular chronologies
  - forced labour
  - authorities of surveillance and registration

Re: School or Prison

#27

Post by GuB-42 »

ThePadawan wrote: post #9

I did quite well by measuring "overall area of ground level windows".

It was my criteria as well and the only one that failed me was https://www.holmesmiller.com/project/hmp-grampian

Which looks really nice for a prison. I suspect it is an administrative building, or just the entrance. Not the place where inmates actually live.

Re: School or Prison

#28

Post by aarroyoc »

My philosophy teacher said that both prisons and schools end up being a panopticon because you want the same in both places: maximize the feel of power of the authority, don't leave any place without surveillance,...

Re: School or Prison

#30

Post by daniel-levin »

philwelch wrote: post #10
joe_the_user wrote: post #2

It's part of the larger situation that the buildings created by large bureaucracies all look about the same.

It’s an architectural style called “brutalism”, which has the predominant aesthetic of “a boot stamping on a human face forever”.

Have you ever set up a high-occupancy building in a structure that isn’t rectilinear? It’s a space efficiency nightmare to fit naturally rectangular fixtures and appliances to rounded walls. I worked in a beautiful post-modernist building with a terrible architectural oversight: the aesthetically charming glass panels acted as a lens that focused light in a way that heated the whole office up. The AC had to be cranked up high just to survive in there. I would take a well-lit, well-ventilated box over a more architecturally creative space that causes its occupants problems.
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