Architecture as a mechanism of control: an investigation into disciplinary techniques and normalizing technologies in twentieth century European and Western school architecture

Abstract

In his book 'Discipline and Punish', Michel Foucault described society as 'carceral'. Society is made up of disciplinary institutions such as the school, the prison, the hospital, the asylum, the office building, which play an integral role in the application of disciplinary techniques which work to produce useful and docile individuals through normalization. Normalization is achieved by obtaining knowledge and applying power. Both of which require the calculated and ordering of individuals in space. Therefore, architecture becomes the physical manifestation of otherwise abstract disciplinary technologies. Architecture as a mechanism of control. Schools play an important role in the formation of the normalized society and are the spaces where knowledge and power and relationships are amongst the most visible. This report investigates six case studies in relation to Michel Foucault's ideas of normalization. These schools are predominantly from the twentieth century and are of European and Western traditions, designed by architects who were amongst the most influential and contemporary of their time. This report will investigate these architects theories, the resulting pedagogy and how the school which they designed relates to Michel Foucault's idea of normalizing space.