CUKUROVA UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES
PhD THESIS
Evaluation of Spatial Effect in Juvenile Closed Prison
Çiğsem Yağmur YÜKSEL
Advisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Mustafa YEĞİN
Department of Architecture
ABSTRACT
The number of children dragged into crime shows an increasing change over the years. It
shows that detained children, who continue to grow and develop in the longer term, are at risk of
facing problems of acceptance in society and also have the potential to become adult offenders.
Detained children are accommodated in Juvenile Closed Prison, which are managed according to
the conditions of incarceration. The main function of Juvenile Closed Prison is for children to
receive education and acquire certain skills, to acquire a profession and to be reintegrated into
society. However, because of being a juvenile offender, incarceration inside the building creates
physical and psycho-social developmental problems. Therefore, in this study, ideas were developed
on the subject of “How can a prison be/can be designed that supports the physical and psychosocial development of detained children while rehabilitating them with spatial and environmental
components”. The research problematic was examined by researching Bronfenbrenner's Ecological
System Model, spatial/contextual needs related to the environment and space requirements
including building/space information defined in the program. Design problems related to the child,
space and environment in the Juvenile Closed Prison, psycho-social situation determination, the
effect of spatial/environmental context on the psycho-social situation, the analysis and evaluations
supported by theoretical explanations made it easier to draw conclusions and a design guideline has
been proposed. For the healing architecture of Juvenile Closed Prisons, it was determined that
design knowledge and practise should be developed on (1) selection of the settlement area (2)
geographical characteristics of the location (3) control of the living unit (4) building form (5)
boundaries of the common use area (6) socialization areas (7) addition of a close monitoring unit
and establishment of production-oriented vocational training/workshops.
Keywords: Prison Design, Healing Architecture, Environmental Design, Detained Child
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