One of the project’s major architectural challenges is for the high-security prison, which can accommodate around 250 inmates, to be less institutionalised.

The overall architectural intent is to create a facility that echoes the structure and scale of a small provincial community. This will ensure a familiar and varied experience of the prison environment and keep the prison’s institutional atmosphere to a minimum. The townlike structure also resembles the surrounding villages, and is thus a natural element of the landscape.

To create further variation, facades and roof ridges are angular in different ways and the facade materials alternate between light-coloured bricks and a combination of concrete and galvanised steel – all durable materials which weather beautifully and do not need much maintenance.