Closed Architecture


2011

The project Closed Architecture is an introduction to ‘Closed Architecture,’ the 2004 graduation thesis of ultranationalist Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) MP, Fleur Agema. The thesis comprises of an elaborate design for a new prison model that Agema developed during her Masters degree in Interior Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts. The model presents a four-phase prison in which prisoners are conditioned through specific learning objectives to earn the right to enter a next phase. In case the prisoner displays undesired behavior s/he is sentenced back a previous phase.

Closed Architecture expands Agema’s studies of this new prison into a fully developed three-dimensional model. Moreover, it investigates the extent to which her earlier architectural work forms a blueprint of her ideological and political position as MP of the ultranationalist PVV – a position from which she now exerts an influence on current government policies – and hence of the organization of our present society. This research project has resulted in a video, an architectural model, a series of three-dimensional drawings, a book, and a theater event.

  • Project by:

    Jonas Staal based on a concept of Fleur Agema


  • Project Team:

    Jonas Staal (artist), Younes Bouadi (producer), Lene ter Haar (project supporter Onomatopee)


  • Supported by:

    Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerpen (NL), Foundation Onomatopee, Eindhoven (NL), Center for Visual Arts, Rotterdam (NL), The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture, Amsterdam (NL)


  • Publication:


Closed Architecture


2011



The project Closed Architecture is an introduction to ‘Closed Architecture,’ the 2004 graduation thesis of ultranationalist Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) MP, Fleur Agema. The thesis comprises of an elaborate design for a new prison model that Agema developed during her Masters degree in Interior Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts. The model presents a four-phase prison in which prisoners are conditioned through specific learning objectives to earn the right to enter a next phase. In case the prisoner displays undesired behavior s/he is sentenced back a previous phase.

Closed Architecture expands Agema’s studies of this new prison into a fully developed three-dimensional model. Moreover, it investigates the extent to which her earlier architectural work forms a blueprint of her ideological and political position as MP of the ultranationalist PVV – a position from which she now exerts an influence on current government policies – and hence of the organization of our present society. This research project has resulted in a video, an architectural model, a series of three-dimensional drawings, a book, and a theater event.

Social Experiment Freethinkers’ Space