The Design of the Models in the 19th Century. Applications in the Regional Framework

Abstract

Starting from the late eighteenth century, with the growth of public interest in prison conditions and with the consolidation of the idea that geometric forms in architecture are capable of guaranteeing institutional power, new types are experimented for the construction of prisons. The most common models developed between the 18th and 19th centuries are based on the principles of the cellular system and central fulcrum.
From these assumptions, the research proposes a critical survey which, in line with the principles expressed in the treatises of the time, addresses a reinterpretation of the design of prisons made in Sardinia during the nineteenth century.
Also, through a comparison with national and international examples investigated in relation to the design drawings preserved in the archives, the study addresses in particular the penitentiaries of Nuoro and Tempio Pausania, circular plan buildings that represent a peculiarity in the Italian panorama.
The two prisons are investigated through the drafting of 3D models, useful to verify a comparison between project and realization and, in the case of Tempio Pausania, to produce a tool through which to check future project proposals.