Architectural design and implementation: Marcante-Testa (UdA-Architects) Installation: Cooperativa Ecosol Photographer: Carola Ripamonti, Marcello Clerico MORE PHOTOS HERE
WHAT – It is a restaurant inside a prison, used every day by the people who work there and by correction officers. It is perhaps the first case in Italy of an attempt to grant environmental quality to critical places like prisons, with the goal of improving the quality of life of the employees and of those who are in the course of a program of rehabilitation (the inner spaces of every individual, with time, shape themselves to the outer spaces in which he or she lives). WHO – The restaurant is run by inmates, from the chef to the waitstaff (according to the latest statistics, in Italy recidivism is reduced from 70% to 5% for inmates involved in training programs). WHEN – It is a place that will be open to the public in the evening, permitting the inmates to come to terms with the real market (and offering an opportunity for the public to gain awareness of and take part in the path of rehabilitation of the inmates). HOW – The project has been made possible by a virtuous mechanism: 1- the prison administration believes in the project but has no funds 2- the architect donates the project and the effort required to find sponsors 3- the sponsors, having understood the social value of the project and its potential for positive image, provide materials and labor free of charge 4- in-house cooperatives complete the installation 5- the project is implemented (easier than it seems…) WHY – in the hope that this initiative can become a possible “breach” in that high wall that presently prevents interior design from coming to grips precisely with those places that need it most.