The Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre Redevelopment – Using Architecture to Help Drive Change in Challenging Environments (PID009)

3.30pm – 4.15pm EDT, 25 April 2024 ‐ 45 mins

Room: Ballroom

Plenary

The Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, is a modern campus-style facility. In 2021, Totalspace Design in association with Guymer Bailey Architects, were commissioned to consider the design of a new 12-bed accommodation that provided enhanced facilities to cater for young people who were not responding to the programs and support currently available at the site.
In this presentation, Sarah Paddick will explore the evolution of the design and the resulting buildings, reflecting on the successes and missed opportunities of what was an ambitious project. She will share ideas about the challenges of trying to effect positive change in environments where often risk mitigation and security take precedence without question, and she will discuss approaches for staff engagement and “bringing people on the journey”.
Sarah will also describe the involvement of South Australian artist, David Booth, a Wuggera man now living in Peramangk (Adelaide Hills) country who worked with the design team to weave art and stories into the architecture and landscape.

Moderator

Marayca Lopez

Justice and Civic Planning Leader, DLR Group, United States

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Speakers

Sarah Paddick FRAIA

Senior Associate Architect, Grieve Gillett Architects, Australia

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Marayca Lopez

Justice and Civic Planning Leader, DLR Group, United States

Dr. Lopez is an expert consultant of distinguished ability and accomplishment in the field of correctional systems and prison reform with an extensive education and international background in penology and criminology. Having exclusively dedicated her academic and professional careers to the justice sector, Marayca possesses a keen understanding of the overall criminal justice system and, more specifically, of correctional systems for both justice-involved youth and adult offenders.

Marayca’s body of work is international in scope. She has participated in a wide array of criminal justice reform projects and prison studies both in the USA and abroad (e.g. Australia, Canada, Europe, Central and South America), resulting in worldwide expertise and a deep understanding of correctional best practices, prison operations and innovative models for offender management and intervention. Marayca’s years of academic pursuit and practical application in the field of corrections have helped to nurture and refine her research and analytical skills, which are critical for criminal justice strategic planning. For the last 14 years, Marayca served as Senior Corrections Analyst and Justice Facility Planner for CGL, a preeminent justice services firm based in New York. As an authority on criminal justice matters and prisons operations, she helped to plan and program correctional facilities that are holistic in their approach, preserve human rights, promote rehabilitation and treatment, are safe and humane, and focused on innovative operational and programmatic models for positive behavioral change and successful re-entry.

Dr. Lopez areas of expertise include the development of system-wide needs assessments; policy and criminal justice data analysis; inmate population forecasting; design of alternatives to incarceration programs; organizational/cultural assessments; existing buildings functional and operational assessments; planning of new justice facilities, transition and activation services. She is an active member of the International Corrections and Prison’s Association’s (ICPA) Planning and Design Committee and has an on-going collaboration with the Correctional Association of New York (Women in Prison Project), the United Nations Friends of Corrections, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Penal Reform International (PRI) on issues related to the humanization of prisons, monitoring of incarceration practices and improvement of detention conditions She is a frequent speaker and/or lecturer in a variety of academic, professional, and international forums.

In recognition of the impact that her work has had improving life in prison through the built environment, Marayca has been recently nominated by the AIA’s Academy of Architecture for Justice to join the Leadership Group in 2021.

Sarah Paddick FRAIA

Senior Associate Architect, Grieve Gillett Architects, Australia

Trained in Architecture at the University of Adelaide, Sarah was a director in her own Architecture and Interior Design practice from 1994 to 2023 when she accepted a Senior Associate role with Grieve Gillett Architects as part of a merger. She now leads GGA’s social Justice sector. Her main area of expertise is in Secure Facility Architecture, undertaking over 100 projects in secure facilities in South Australia. In 2010, she undertook a worldwide tour of Women’s Secure Facilities in her role as the Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholar, focusing on residential parenting programs. She has worked as a consultant to the South Australian Department for Correctional Services as a design advisor on their major redevelopment programs at the Yatala Labour Prison and Adelaide Women’s Prison and was a member of the Stronger Foundations and Clear Pathways Women’s Ministerial Work Group.
Sarah is one of the founding directors of the UTurn Foundation, a not-for-profit social initiative focusing on improving outcomes for incarcerated women on their release from prison, by creating employment pathways into the construction industry. She was part of the team that developed the very successful UTurn Construction Pathways Program at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, a unique program that gave incarcerated women work experience and training on a live construction site within the prison. In 2023, Sarah received an Australia Day Award, the Inspiring South Australian Woman’s Award, for her work in the social justice sector.
Sarah is passionate about improving conditions for incarcerated women, and focusing on their specific needs to gain better outcomes.