Interventions in interview rooms

One of the main problems identified in our analysis is the sense of confinement within the interview rooms, in which clients are likely to spend between 1 to 2 hours, before which they might attend a group session for a further hour. The majority of interview rooms have no natural daylight. We have drawn inspiration from the works of Dan Flavin and James Turrell to experiment with different lighting compositions, to create an illusion of expanded space and openess. We feel that it is imperative to address the cramped conditions of these interview rooms to truly make an improvement to clients' experiences of the centre.

"The Light Inside" James Turrell

OMA Serpentine Pavilion 2006

Thinking back to OMA's Serpentine Pavilion, the seating arrangement was extremely flexible and free, allowing for the user to make use of the foam blocks as they please during seminars and talks. In this particular photo, someone is actaully eating his lunch off a foam block (demonstrating the full versatility of the system!). The material choice of foam has potential to be transferred into the probation centre waiting area, it is low-cost, lightweight, and somewhat malleable, reducing the possible danger of causing physical harm to others.

Bishopsfield Housing Facade, Essex, 1994

The repair and modernisation of existing 1960's public housing blocks originally designed by Neylan and Ungless Architects. The functions of the window have been deconstructed and form separate elements of the façade, ie. views, ventilation, shading are split between the various panel types on the complex curtain wall.

It is an example of how function dictates the splitting up of the facade, something which is particularly relevant to my current design direction.

Immovable furniture

Thomas Heatherwick's interior for Longchamp, New York.

The installation of the staircase makes fluid transitions between wall, staircase and floor. Currently the seating in the waiting room is bolted to the floor, for reasons of safety, preventing the throwing of furniture. The concept behind Heatherwick's stair as a more sensitive solution to immovable seating as usage and configuration also becomes more verstatile, giving clients the option to make decisions about where they sit or how they occupy the space instead of this being dictated.

Further Façade ideas

Split-flap display in rotation:

Solari departure board at Gare du Nord, Paris:

Split flap display section:

Split-flap displays are a great example of a mechanical method of data display, the pixel of the analogue age. It would be interesting to combine the mechanical action of the flap display with a digital element of interaction e.g. what if the façade were to transform in synchronisation with your movements. The "flap-pixels" can allow for a multitude of combinations of alphanumeric/graphical displays. Transparency can be achieved by installing transparent flaps throughout, a software script would need to be devised to determine the visual output.

Existing Facade

The existing facade to the probation centre's waiting room. Opaque glass fronted to obscure views in and out of the waiting room, giving privacy to clients inside, however preventing any views out. Lou suggested we take a look at the new Biochemistry building by Hawkins/Brown near the Pitt River's museum to see how they dealt with privacy and shading issues.

Hawkins/Brown incorporated Rorschach patterns into the glass to add transparency to the otherwise opaque glass façade. The link between Biochemistry and Rorschach patterns is a mystery to me but the building was received to quite some success as it won a RIBA award in 2009.

Façade ideas

Digital billboards are fast replacing/have replaced the tri-vision billboard, heralding big brands such as these for the digital age. Although the potential for digital billboards is virtually limitless, most tend to show the same few adverts as their mechanical predecessors i.e. data output remains the same. Maybe call it futureproofing.

The relationship between billboard and brand is identifiable to everyone and could be curiously explored by way of Oxford Probation Service as Brand. The mechanical action of each rotation always evokes a sense of yearning and anticipation from the viewer in a borderline hypnotic fashion, often turning to display a vacuous marketing directive/political incentive that often makes watching the mechanical action far more appealing than seeing the uniform whole. The juxtaposition of posters contrasting in implication could be used in a very provocative manner, or a success-story narrative could reside on the rotating pillars. Messages could be changed on a regular basis, although the laborious method of application perhaps needs to be developed.

The following artists have taken the billboard as object and attempted to embody it with meaning beyond that of the superficial.

Jennifer Marmant & Daniel Borins "In Sit You" 2006

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset "This Place Can't Be Yours" 2006

The collaboration between Levi's and artist Stefan Sagmeister is a reinterpretation of the trivision billboard.

The notion of facade as data projection, shelter, brise soleil is I believe, systematically close to that of billboards, which do indeed project data and can easily be reimagined as brise soleil. And thoughtful extrusion in the third dimension could possibly provide an element of shelter...

Suggested links

During our aforementioned meeting with Lou Everatt, she recommended that we take a look into the concept of restorative justice, where offenders make direct reparations for the crimes they have committed, e.g. through meeting and directly apologising to victims/return stolen money/carrying out relevant community service. The following video examples show instances where the restorative justice system has been a success.

"The Woolf Within" - Peter Woolf was a prolific offender, ensconced in a world of violence and depravity, who, by his own reckoning committed about 20,000 crimes. Then he burgled a house, fought with his victim and ended up in prison yet again. This time though it was different. Peter met with his victim, Will, in a restorative justice session that took place in the prison. The meeting changed both their lives for ever.

- 85% of victims participating in restorative justice felt it was a positive experience.

- 78% would recommend it to others

- Two thirds of those leaving prison are reconvicted within 2 years

- Restorative justice is proven to reduce re-offending by up to half

Thames Valley has piloted a direct reparation system (the evaluation of which can be found here), and I would be interested in possibly incorporating elements of this pioneering system into my design.

Further research:

Sociologist Stanley Cohen's Moral Panic and Folk Devils theory

Sociologist Howard Becker's Labelling theory

1st meeting with Lou Everatt, Senior Probation Officer

Gregor and I met with Lou at George and Delilah's, Cowley Road on Thursday afternoon (7th Oct). Lou is Senior Probation Officer with the substance abuse team located at the Old Music Hall on Cowley Road. We covered many points in our discussion, during which we learnt a lot about the nature of the probation service and how some of our preconceived ideas for an illuminated attention grabbing façade were perhaps now inappropriate as a solution. The main issues that I felt would make an immediate design impact included:

- The Probation Service would like to be kept discreet and unpublicised: most members of the public don't realise that offenders spend significant time of their sentence on probation. If the building became too attention-grabbing, this would also put off offenders from turning up to their meetings.

- Branding. Thames Valley Probation as a trust, have now developed their own "branding" via the use of a logo, pantone colours etc. The contrast between centralised vs localised arises when dealing with branding... is it advertised as Oxford Probation or is Thames Valley emphasised?

- Many clients have mobility issues and/or ill health.

- 70% of men in custody have mental health issues compared with 90% of women.

- Macmillan House has several group activity rooms. When clients wait in the waiting room, no two groups should be located together. e.g. a group workshop for sex offenders is on at the same time as a workshop for substance abuse. The attendees for the two groups must not share the same space.

- The need for staff prejudices to be challenged, as well as members of the public.

This has challenged us to rethink the idea of using LEDs and other digital facade mediums, or perhaps integrate them in a way that is truly sensitive to the client's requirements. Currently I feel inclined toward pursuing a non-digital data interface that is still ever-changing and versatile in its nature.

In addition to this, Lou made a series of suggestions for possible co-habitation ideas e.g.

- celebrate the successes of probation

- bring in artworks created by ex-offenders

- possibly incorporate health elements e.g. needle exchange/free condoms. Many clients are not registered with a GP or dentist.

We will meet Lou again on Tuesday 12th October at Macmillan House, St Aldates, for a look around the facility.

Breakdown of Brief

The brief is speculative and acts as an exercise in branding. It involves the design for a welcome reception, and an interactive façade that appeals to both clients and the public. It must also offer shelter, act as brise soleil and display data. Tactics must focus on encouraging a more positive public perception of the probation organisation. Suggested starting points include:

Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist, the main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas (her "truisms") in public spaces and is probably most well known for her projections. The messages can be provocative on their own while they link us to wider themes of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death.

Klein Dytham's project for Bloomberg in Tokyo showcases financial data in a way in which passers by can interact with. Bloomberg harvests data from around the world and it is processed into a form that can be played with in a tangible and tactile way.

Interface designer Toshio Iwai collaborated with Klein Dytham on the Bloomberg project, and is also the developer of one of my favourite games on Nintendo DS: Electroplankton. It's not your typical "game" as such, more of a series of beautiful musical interactions with strange little luminescent plankton which turns out to be a rather successful (and fun) example of interface design.

Minimalist light installation artist Dan Flavin used fluorescent light fixtures as his main medium. Having not really understood what all the fuss was about until I experienced his work for myself, I discovered that it is not about the object itself, but rather the environment. It's not about the fluorescent tube or bulb itself but what happens when the light diffuses and reflects off walls/windows/spaces and the colours created from this, which I found deeply alluring. The above photo was taken at the Kroller Muller museum, NL, in a room adjacent to that in which his work was displayed.

Preliminary Research

Before our meeting with Lou Everatt from the substance abuse sector of the Oxford Probation service, I did a bit of background research into how probation works and what services are provided. Oxford Probation forms one of five local delivery units that make up Thames Valley Probation, which incidentally became a Trust this April (inevitably meaning stricter control and targets imposed by central government amongst other things). About a year ago there were plans to merge offices in Oxford, Abingdon, Cowley and Banbury into one "mega-probation centre", which was met with huge resistance from the residents from the Mill Street area of Oxford. So much so that they set up WOCAMP: West Oxford Community Against Mega Probation... Centre.

I guess this showed how passionate the community felt against having a range of violent/non-violent/sexual offenders on their doorstep, which is perhaps understandable, and the smaller-than-proposed office has now relocated to a central location adjacent to the police station (which some would argue is a better suited spot). The general consensus was that yes, people were all for having a fantastic centralised probation service but just "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY), yeah? Of all the hype generated by WOCAMP, it appears that irrational fears were developing from myths such as perceived higher crime rates in areas adjacent to the probation centre, an exacerbated drug problem and architecturally, a "fortress-like mega-centre" to contain the aforementioned offenders, who would pillage and violate their way in and out of the neighbourhood, obviously.

This is perhaps an over-generalised perspective on the whole situation, but I feel the articles I've come across have given me an insight to get started on thinking about ways of challenging people's perception on Probation Centres and offenders.