The Body of the Prison

This thesis examines a number of historical mythical and theological interpretations of women and the female body as perceived by the ancient Greeks and by the religious writings of Christianity and Judaism as a means of addressing the site program materiality and spatial organization of a maternity prison. The setting up of a parallel spatial material and metaphoric association between the productive body of the mother and the edifying body of the prison aims to make palpable in architectural form the transitional internal experience of women through their pregnancy and into motherhood. Themes of sin punishment confinement (containment) and redemption as related to women drawn from the misogynistic connotations imposed by associations with mythical and allegorical figures are used to form critical spatial symbolic and literal design relationships between the female body and the body of the prison.