This study investigates Bollate Detention Centre’s spaces and establishes a participatory design process to raise awareness of the need for prison-focused projects.
The design proposals aim at revealing the potential of underused spaces inside Italian prisons, through sport and physical activity.
The research develops within Covid-19 pandemic and follows two lines of investigation. On the one hand, desk research provides a general understanding of the subject of sport in prison against different disciplinary backgrounds. On the other hand, research through people collects stakeholders’ needs and feedback. The interaction with the community is fundamental to make the project a shared modification of spaces and practices.
The impact of the research process lies with the analysis of the requests from the inhabitants combined with context-specific features, as well as social, historical, and normative issues. Such methodology would be suitable for application in other fragile contexts.