Evidence-Based Design in Recent Australian Maximum Security Prison Projects (PID028)

11.30am – 12pm EDT, 25 April 2024 ‐ 30 mins

Room: Ballroom

Parallel Workshops

The recently completed Western Plains Correctional Centre and the mid-construction Southern Queensland Correctional Project (Stage 2) at Gatton are two of Australia’s three largest recent maximum security greenfield prison projects, both designed by Guymer Bailey Architects.

Both projects have continued to progress Australia’s forward-thinking approach to operations-led correctional design, embracing evidence-based approaches to therapeutic environments. The projects are in two different Australian states, both of which have different approaches to correctional operations, and this presentation explores how the same aims produce some similar and some different built outcomes.

Evidence based themes include Biophilia (materiality, daylight, views to nature, imitation of nature), Carceral Geography (proximity to nature, prospect and refuge theory, felt intensity and emotional geography), trauma informed design, connections to family and community, prisoner experience.