Awards
Institutional Building Concept
Winner of World Design Awards 2020
Winner of AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice (aia american institute of architects) 2020
Health and Education Landscape
AILA NSW Landscape Architecture 2021
The design of the Dillwynia Women’s Correctional Centre Maximum Security Expansion creates environments considerate of the inmates, staff and visitors to the facility. It is unlike any other correctional facility with harmony between architecture and landscape design to provide a therapeutic environment that positively contributes to rehabilitation and reduced reoffending of inmates.
“From the outset our team envisioned a facility that considered the end users. Our aim was to create something that made staff, visitors and inmates feel safe, fostering a sense of normality and positivity. As a practice our goal is to create impactful environments that improve lives. We are proud to have been given the opportunity to include design elements that support this .”
Anthea Doyle Justice Studio Principal NBRS
3/06/20
Creating environments that positively impact people and the world around us is at the core of everything we do at NBRSARCHITECTURE. We are a creative community working to shape society and in doing so improve lives.
The expansion of Dillwynia Correctional Centre presented as a state requirement to deal with a growing cohort in the prison population, 3500 of which are female with indications showing that number is ever growing.
By providing a facility that is embedded in our ethos and objectives, we’ve been able to take this opportunity to contribute to the community in a meaningful way.
From an architectural perspective, the outcome resulted in spaces that broke typical institutional typology. This means more light filled, open spaces that provide a sense of normality, trust and support. A sincere architectural effort to foster relationships and rehabilitation that not only impacts the lives of inmates and staff, but all those who are connected to them.
PHYSICAL SITE CONSTRAINTS
Proximity to fire prone bushland
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE
Use of tyre dumping site
INTEGRATION WITHIN SPACE
associated infrastructure and existing correctional centre
In 2017, Dillwynia Women’s Correctional Centre was earmarked as a facility capable of expansion to deal with a growing female prison population. The trend within this cohort was not only restricted to its growth rate, but also the needs within. Higher security requirements and increased mental health treatment were also identified as high priority needs. NBRSARCHITECTURE was engaged to develop the brief and deliver the project based on extensive experience in the sector and our desire to provide an outcome heavily entrenched within our ethos: Architecture For Life Changing Environments
Dillwynia captures NBRS’ dedication to research and design for better outcomes. The facility advances the standard of correctional centre design nationally and internationally. Identification and implementation of critical themes that have stayed with us through the entire design and construction process include;
Multipurpose Unit
Education & Programs
Faced with an extremely compact site, we saw an opportunity to transform a perceived constraint into an advantage. The arrangement of buildings have been articulated to mimic a close knit community structure. Thoughtful infill of leisure and landscaped spaces in the interface further enhances a village style campus. The outcome is a break from a typical institutional layout into a more therapeutic space tailored for rehabilitative experiences.
Normalisation in correctional facility design provides an environment that seeks to reduce further trauma and psychological harm often symptomatic of institutionalisation.
The urban planning of Dillwynia replicates aspects of familiar spatial recognition. Primarily by eliminating secure corridors for movement around the facility, and the “main street” element found in the vicinity of the main entry buildings. The architecture of the main street was designed with chamfered precast window reveals to create a shop front aesthetic that also acts as an anti-climb barrier.
The Dillwynia expansion has maximised the useable site area. Using a spine of support space buildings as the interface perimeter between maximum security and lower security classifications.
Maximum Expansion
Existing Site SPINE
5: Day Room
Women move and socialise differently to males. We have designed separate kitchen, eating, tv and lounging spaces in smaller clusters to suit the behaviours of women while still maintaining sight lines for officers. This freedom of choice provides a positive impact on an inmates self advocacy and social identity.
Shifting the orientation of the adjacent accommodation buildings to ensure there are no direct lines of sight from cell to cell.
The cells have been designed to contribute to positive health and wellbeing of inmates. This includes adequate acoustics, good natural light, individualised storage, sleeping and study solutions and maximising privacy where possible.
Education is a steppingstone in the pathway to better behaviours by imparting knowledge, learning new skills and instilling confidence.
Our facility adopts future focused learning principles to achieve better education through flexible and safe working environments.
Future focused learning principles have guided us in implementing the following elements:
• Continuous learning environments achieved through co-locating staff facilities.
• Reducing learning disruptions be isolating education spaces from interview and AVL facilities.
• Introducing practical learning elements through connections with the industries function of the facility.
• Allowing for flexibility, through the day to day function of breakout and withdrawal
spaces both internally and externally. And providing an ability to expand and contract spaces as needed by the learning function required.
The design for the education and program spaces takes concepts from future focused education by providing spaces adjacent to teaching spaces for de-escalation. If inmates (students) become overwhelmed and disruptive in class, they can be removed but within sight lines to allow for them to recalibrate prior to re-joining the class.
When people who are incarcerated can maintain constructive relationships with family and friends they sustain support networks crucial to reintegration outside of the facility.
Given the importance of the visits function, it is critical that the space provided to this area appears safe, supportive and normalised.
• Officer posts mimic a typical reception counter setting.
• Dedicated child play areas
• Private family rooms with advanced acoustics and natural light
The design of the facility has grappled with ensuring safety and security is paramount but including thoughtful architectural design that ultimately contributes to the wellbeing of the users of the spaces.
The landscape design was critical in providing a sense of space and tranquility to the external spaces of the facility.
Curved fences, low mass planting combined with exercise and small congregation zones have all been designed with female offenders in mind. These zones have been provided in various locations with dedicated oversight. This allows for self guidance and a sense of freedom to offenders, while maintaining a passive level of security and monitoring.
The accommodation has been selected and arranged to allow for the ability of graduation from higher security, through to lower security cells in an operationally dynamic solution. The concept of graduated living has been enforced with internal design selections.
