The rebirth of man through the regeneration of spaces

One of the main purposes of Architecture should be to improve the quality of human life through the design of space. Ability and sensibility of architects are always very influential to act in particular contexts of our cultural heritage: one of the most complex areas of intervention regards prison facilities. Professionals have to design projects of recovery to guarantee proper areas with all security needs, although the prison buildings are often old structures. In this case, the importance of the way of designing is essential to help the process of detainees‟ reeducation: in fact, the biggest problem is that spaces are alienating and this implicates that the detained will be always a social outcast. If the purpose of the jail is rehabilitation, the ambient where the imprisoned live, should encourage their positive reply. Unfortunately, the conditions of the most of this kind of structures are often inadequate. The prison of Naples, in Poggioreale neighborhood, is one of the creepiest examples. The Neapolitan Onlus „Made in Earth‟ is engaged in this type of intervention: they designed a project of recovery of one courtyard of the prison. The conditions of the spaces and the restrictions imposed by security reasons have pushed the Made in Earth team to search alternative solutions to support a better quality of life in prisons. The aim of this article is to suggest good examples to offer some guidelines of intervention in designing jail‟s spaces.