Uruguay 2018

Title: Prison to Prison, an Intimate Story between two Architectures. Commissioner: Alejandro Denes

The project for the pavilion explores the existence of an unprecedented Freespace inside the unlikeliest place and in close relationship with its larger opposite. Last year the largest building created in Uruguay was a prison and this symbolic fact bears witness to the desires and fears of our society and the effect that architecture can have.  

Ironically, this new prison was built adjacent to the existing Punta de Rieles Prison, often referred to as the “village jail.” A unique experience in Uruguay, and in the world, in which the prison is understood as a lively, vibrant neighbourhood that imitates the outside on the inside, resulting in an unexpected Freespace for collective projects and negotiations inside a detention centre.