Prison Times – Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments – Photos by Piercarlo Quecchia, DSL Studio, courtesy of DropCity.

Design. On the occasion of Milan Design Week, beneath the revamped tunnels of the Stazione Centrale [Map], Dropcity inaugurates Prison Times – Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments, an unprecedented exploration of time and space in detention centres. The project invites visitors to discover incarceration’s socioeconomic machinery and reflect on penal systems’ underlying causes and impacts on individuals and society.

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The exhibition is divided into five sections–Entering Time, Eating Time, Monitoring Time, Cleaning Time, and Sleeping Time. Through security doors, monitoring systems, furniture, and objects specifically designed and produced for prisons, the 1,500-square-meter Prison Times encourages us to question and reflect on how and to what extent architecture and design can impact the detention environment.

What is a typical day like for an inmate? “Time inside a prison operates on a different scale, where even the most ordinary object, through repeated use, can slowly reshape the rigid spatial order imposed by its walls.” Explain the curators. “In this environment, bodies are stripped of agency; actions become mechanical, often with detachment and little human connection.” While prison deprives inmates of their freedom, it leaves them with an abundance of time—time that, paradoxically, holds the potential for resistance and subversion against the carceral system.”

Instead of romanticising pain or suffering, Prison Times takes a subversive approach through showrooming, the practice of visiting physical stores to examine products before purchasing them online at a lower cost. All items are displayed clinically and taxonomically, revealing their role in institutionalised routines and connection to the prison industrial complex.

The exhibition is open until April 31, from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM at Via Sammartini 38-60 [Map]. DropCity complements the showcase with a programme of public lectures hosted by prominent artists, researchers, and thought leaders discussing the current state and future of prison environments.

The book Prison Times: Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments analyses prison furnishings’ material, technological, and formal conditions. It specifically examines how security parameters, recognised as design requirements, convey the ideological concept of punishment within prison furnishings, transforming them into tools of control and surveillance over bodies in space.

• All photos of Prison Times are by Piercarlo Quecchia (DSL studio) – Courtesy of DropCity.