A series of designer jail cells went on show on Thursday in Turin for an unusual exhibition dedicated to prison architecture.
Eleven architects' studios from countries including the United States, China, Iran, Libya, Japan and Italy are presenting their interpretations of the classic prison cell, measuring three by four metres and containing all the basics necessary for life behind bars, at the city's Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation.
''Today architecture enjoys great media visibility thanks to the increase of spectacular buildings such as museums, theatres and other great works, but prisons do not receive similar attention,'' explained curator Francesco Bonami.
''Prisons are among the most difficult and absorbing architectural challenges, in which the organisation of space gives weight to the legal and political principle of punishing crime,'' he added.
Bonami said the architects had approached the design of the cells by reflecting on issues such as the restriction of freedom, respect for human rights and surveillance measures.
Many of the cells have been created in life-size models, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the isolated space physically, while other studios have interpreted their mandate more loosely.
Italy's NOWA studio asked 100 detainees in Sicily's Caltagirone jail to draw real or imaginary cells and made small-scale models from the prisoners' plans, which were then used like bricks to form a single large cell.
Serbian architect Anna Miljacki has turned a cell upside down and suspended it from the ceiling in her comment on controversial profit-making, private prisons in the United States.
British-based studio Ines and Eyal Weizman have created a library of books written in prison, from the letters of St Paul to the works of French writer Jean Genet and the texts of dissident politicians such as Mahatma Gandhi and Italian Communist party founder Antonio Gramsci.
The library will be donated to a prison when the show ends.
The exhibition has been organised to coincide with the World Congress of Architects, which Turin will host from June 29 to July 3.
YouPrison - Reflections on Limitations of Space and Freedom runs at the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin from June 12 to October 12.
