University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2005 Subverting the Panopticon: Privacy in the Public Realm Stephen Collins University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Collins, Stephen, "Subverting the Panopticon: Privacy in the Public Realm. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2005. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/587 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Stephen Collins entitled "Subverting the Panopticon: Privacy in the Public Realm." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture, with a major in Architecture. George Dodds, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: C.A. Debelius, Marleen Davis Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Stephen Collins entitled "Subverting the Panopticon: Privacy in the Public Realm." I have examined the final paper ofthis thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master of Ar~itecture, with a major in Architecture. I 1 j C.A. Debelius I f i Marfeen DaVi Accepted for the Council: 1 1 I ,j .. /het:;I"!> 2 p ti < .C-6<" ~.~--~~--~---------------------------------------------------------------- f! SUBVERTING THE PANOPTICON PRIVACY IN THE PUBLIC REALM A Thesis Presented for the Master of Architecture Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Stephen Collins August 2005 .... Acknowledgements Thank you Gianna, with all my love and admiration. ii Abstract The Panopticon, designed by Jeremy Bentham in 1787, is an architectural device based on isolation of people and surveillance - knowledge focused in places of power. The Panopticon was influential as an architectural paradigm, easily adapted to varied uses. Bentham as did other utilitarian eighteenth century philosophers believed the built environment could fabricate virtue. The techniques of the Panopticon were applied to the central task of fabricating normality, rather than the peripheral task of rectifying abnormality. Michel Foucault brought the moral engineering to the fore and showed that it was put in place to conduct 'normatively self-disciplining subjects.' As normative control methods became more prevalent methods of privacy protection developed in parallel. The notion of sensibility the personal consciousness required to guarantee a preferred normative response­ emerged as one method to ensure privacy and protect social appearances. This thesis will develop a language for architecture analogous to sensibility. Just as all people remain ultimately unknowable, the thesis will highlight false truths hypocrisy, defiance and conformity and balance opposites. The vehicle used to explore the tenuous line of sensibility is a Planned Parenthood facility in Charleston, SC. The site is an abandon eighteenth century jail, which is representative of the eighteenth century prison reform movement. The ironic pairing of program and site, combined with the security concerns creates an opportunity to decipher the subtle language of subversion. ! I~ II iii - Table of Contents I. Thesis Proposition A. History ofPenitentiary Reform 3 B. Elements ofthe Panopticon 6 C. Contemporary Application ofthe Panopticon 8 D. Privacy 9 E. Women and Sensibility 11 II. Site 13 A. Site Description 13 B. City Zoning & Building Codes 13 C. Site History 14 D. Site Analysis 17 III. Program 18 A. History ofPlanned Parenthood 18 B. Quantitative Program 19 C. Qualitative Program 20 IV. Case Studies 22 A. Eastern State Penitentiary 22 B. Hillary Godwin Library 22 C. Pessac Housing Development 23 V. Precedents 24 A. Bridges USA 24 B. Eastmont Clinic 24 VI. Final Presentation 26 Works Cited 27 Appendix 30 Vita 61 iv List of Figures Figure 1. Satirical print of Newgate Prison 1750 Shows the liminal 31 nature of the colonized building as a prison. The London Railey Show, Guildhall Library, London Fabrication of Virtue Robin Evans. Figure 2. Penton ville Prison designed 1840 completed 1842 architect 31 Joshua Jebb. Figure 3. Pentonville cell isolation included work. 32 Figure 4. The radial plan of Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. 32 Architect: John de Haviland1821-9 R.I.B.A Drawings (Evans). Figure 5. Radial plan of the Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. 33 Figure 6. Section of Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. 33 Figure 7. Interior Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. 34 Architect: John Haviland 1993 Cellblock 6 Photo by Sandy Solien. Figure 8. Begging grate onto Fleet Market early nineteenth century_ 34 British Library (Evans). Figure 9. Thomas Rowlanson, water color sketch of the Marshalsea 35 1825. Boston Public Library (Evans). Figure 10. Treadmill at Briston. William Cubitt, 1821 35 British Library (Evans). Figure 11. Penitentiary Panopticon. Jeremy Bentham, Samuel Bentham, 36 Willey Reveley, 1791 Bentham Papers (Evans). Figure 12. Panopticon House of Industry. Architects: Samuel Bruce and 37 Samuel Bentham, Jermey Bentham's brother 1797 British Library (Evans). Figure 13. Willowbrook Mall security observatory hidden above 37 a public library. Mike Davis City of Quartz. Figure 14. The Prisoner, 1787-90 Joseph Wright of Derby. Solitary 38 prisoner in a panoptic scene. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (Bender) Figure 15. Arial photo from the Northwest 1997. 38 v Figure 16. Site Plan of Old City Jail Charleston S.C. 39 Figure 17. North-South Section of Old City Jail, Charleston, S.C. 39 Figure 18. Old City Jail North fagade Charleston, S.C. 40 F:i.gure 19. Old City Jail from Northwest corner Charleston, S.C. 40 Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS, Reproduction number [e.g., "HABS ILL, 16-CHIG, 33-2 "] Figure 20. Old City Jail with the workhouse beyond (1865) from 41 Northwest corner. Figure 21. Figure/ground of Old City District Charleston, S.C. 41 Figure 22. Jail's proximity to relevant sites within Charleston, S.C. 42 Figure 23. Topography of lower peninsula of Charleston, S.C. 42 Figure 24. A concrete block bunker-like wall fortifies Godwin Library 43 from the neighborhood. Frank Gehry. Figure 25. The imposing entrance at Godwin Library. 43 Figure 26. Pessac Type 3 housing Le Corbusier, The wide windows of 44 the original were reduced in size. (Bouden) 1969. Figure 27. Pessac Type 1 Housing; The homogenetic identical facades 44 of Le Corbusier's design was disrupted by the individual adjustments to the facades. Figure 28. Site plan. 45 Figure 29. First floor plan. 46 Figure 30. Second floor plan. 47 Figure 31. Third floor plan. 48 Figure 32. Diagrams. 49 Figure 33. Sections AA BB. 50 Figure 34. Sections CC'DD. 51 vi Figure 35. Sections EE FF. 52 Figure 36. Sections GG HH. 53 Figure 37. Axonometric. 54 Figure 38. Photo montage with perimeter wall as wire frame. 54 Figure 39. Perspective 1. 55 Figure 40. Perspective 2. 55 Figure 41. Perspective 3. 56 Figure 42. Perspective 4. 56 Figure 43. Perspective 5. 57 Figure 44. Perspective 6. 57 Figure 45. Perspective 7. 58 Figure 46. Perspective 8. 58 Figure 47. Perspective 9. 59 Figure 48. Perspective 10. 59 Figure 49. Details. 60 vii r I. Thesis Proposition The penitentiary is an architectural signpost of modernity. Never before had an explicit architecture been associated with prison design and other programs requiring segregation and surveillance. 1 Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon is not only the paradigm for utilitarian eighteenth-century prisons, it is also a model of how systems of power are successfully operated and maintained in modem thought and space. The Panopticon was a product of the English prison reform movement but is not limited to carceral applications just the same, panoptic architecture is not limited to prisons. ThePanopticon is most directly associated with prisons, but the application of the panoptic philosophy is broad. The inspiration for the Panopticon came from a mill designed by Bentham's brother. Bentham and others proposed greater applications, including schools, hospitals and even rotating chicken COOpS. 2 The Panopticon was influential as an architectural paradigm, easily adapted to varied uses. The influence, however, was often surreptitious.] The Panopticon is an architectural device based on isolation of people and surveillance knowledge focused in places of power. As behavior control methods became more prevalent in the eighteenth century, methods of privacy protection developed in parallel. The effects of privacy, both spatial and mental, were explored in the early modem period in social policy, architecture and literature. The notion of 1 Evans 1982, 2. 2 Evans 1982, 24. 3 Evans 1982, 34. 1 sensibility - the personal consciousness required to guarantee a preferred normative response - emerged as one method to ensure privacy and protect social appearances.