Interazione tra spazio e detenuti. L’architettura insegna a vivere in comunità

Prison is where to serve the sentence; the time spent inside should be - in addition to a period of deprivation of freedom but not of suffering induced by space - a time of rehabilitation. In particular, some foreign experiences (USA, Spain, Denmark, Norway) show us how crucial the role of living in community is to learn again the rules of living together. A model particularly useful to study this issue is that of monasteries, in which space is organized in ways, and sometimes with purposes, analogous to those of prisons. Not the solitary Eastern monasticism but the modalities assumed by Western monasticism are relevant; here in fact the role of the community became fundamental. The construction of common spaces and common ways of living these spaces, with mutual responsibility, would seem to be an important rehabilitation tool. The quality and the behaviors induced by the architecture are particularly important for these space-man dynamics to trigger and function.