A célula prisional. Entre a clausura e a dignidade humana

Abstract

The present dissertation takes the prison cell as its object of study. Prompted by a personal concern following a visit to the Paços de Ferreira Prison, the investigation tests the role of Architecture as a mediator between physical confinement and human dignity, focusing on the minimum unit of involuntary seclusion as the harshest and most severe limit of the human condition. Aiming to understand how physical space shapes or conditions the experience within a context of deprivation of liberty, the dissection of the architectural cell is structured around three fundamental axes: Ethics, Aesthetics (Est(ética)), and Technique. This tripartite methodological matrix, supported by the secant planes of Gilles Deleuze's philosophy and Luís Viegas's epistemological reflection, functions not only analytically but also as an operative working tool. Ethics, being deeply conceptual, is concerned with the moral dimension of confinement, defining a clear boundary between punishment and dehumanization. Aesthetics (Est(ética)), anchored in the moral values defined by ethics, questions sensibility, matter, and the impact of the physical limit on the human body. Finally, Technique operates on a large scale, inserting the individual cell into the prison's multicellular and collective dispositive, reflecting on the technical and functional mechanisms that ensure the institution's security, surveillance, and control, as a counterpoint to increasing technological dematerialization. Drawing on a transdisciplinary approach supported by authors from various fields, the process merges conceptual abstraction with the physicality of architectural space, culminating in a return to its starting point through a practical and critical diagnosis of cell 042 at the Paços de Ferreira Prison, which tests and activates the grounded theoretical framework. Thus, it is concluded that Architecture is indispensable as a disciplinary mechanism with profound educational, sensitive, and operative responsibilities in safeguarding and protecting the fundamental human condition.