1week1project envisions panama papers jail on a cargo boat

founded in 2013 by axel de stamp and sylvain macaux, 1week1project aims to produce one weekly proposal based on actual observations from daily life. their process includes identifying a site, generating a diagnosis and creating a scheme that involves an architectural project. the only rule is that each project needs to be spontaneous. for this week’s programme, the location is the international waters in panama city where they have envisioned the ‘panama papers jail’ — a prison made with paper cells.

aerial view 
images by nordcapital 

published in 2016, the panama papers are 11.5 million leaked documents, dating back to the 1970’s, containing information about offshore entities and are proof of the largest scaled tax dodging having ever taken place. with the ‘panama papers’ jail’, 1week1project aims to question what sanctions should be applied. made with paper cells, the prison is built on a cargo boat, floating on the international waters facing panama city. it can hold up to 3,300 detainees and its design opposes two colossal prison ‘sails’, one for men and one for women.

exterior 

as for the operating principles, the two ‘sails’ are 350 meters long and 100 meters high, divided in two parts: rows of nine square meter cells in the front part; a master’s office, administration and mess hall in the middle part; and housing for the penitentiary guards (36 square meters duplex apartments). the prison is completely autonomous, topped with an upper deck dedicated to agriculture and a sports field on the bow of the boat. the cargo boat hold contains a sea water treatment plant, workshops and a gym.

each cell is nine square meters

the interior is built with all the panama papers

view from the roof

exterior back view

floor plan

location

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.