YOUPrison:the notion of space used as a tool of punishment

YOUprison: Some thoughts on the limitation of space and freedom

An exhibition curated by Francesco Bonami as part of the World Congress of Architecture in Turin from June to Spetember.

Twelve reflections on the limitation of space and freedom. Twelve cells on a real scale constructed by as many architectural offices at the Sandretto Foundation in Turin. To give visitors a first-hand experience of the burning issues surrounding one of the most difficult and intriguing spaces. With over 8 million incarcerated individuals, the prison population is one of the fastest growing communities in the world. The United States, a country with only 5 per cent of the world’s population, holds 25 per cent of the world’s prison population. America’s 2 million people behind bars represent the highest per capita incarceration rate in the history of the world, making prisons the fastest growing category of housing in the country.

via Domus and UIATorino2008

Buried But Not Forgotten?: The Secret of Yucca Mountain

Brian P. Bloomfield & Theo Vurdubakis – Department of Organisation, Work and Technology, Lancaster University

ABSTRACT: Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada (USA), is the site of a very ambitious project to construct an underground repository for high-level nuclear waste. The object of scientific research and planning for over 20 years, and still facing significant political and legal challenges, the project aims to transport thousands of tons of radioactive waste from sites across the USA for storage at Yucca Mountain where it is meant to be kept safe for some10,000 years. Examination of the project highlights the relationships between social boundaries (proximity), language, and risk, geology and technoscience, in which the effort to realise safety materially (through the repository, and its situation within the local geology and geography) is complemented by efforts to communicate the dangers held within the mountain to the unknown (and unknowable) peoples of the distant future.

LINKS:

US department of Energy: Civilian Radioactive Waste Management

Yucca Mountian homepage

Peter Schwartz (founder of Global Business Network & wrote The Art of the Long View: see my FOSK blog entry) writes about the future of Yucca Mountain on The Long Now Foundation blog