Reform, Health & Architecture

There were similarities between the Bentham’s Panopticon and Leroy’s proposal for Hôtel-Dieu. The model applied was a radical one as well as a pavilion type which had the wards organized in rows interconnected to the spine.

Contrast however shown on objective of the two proposals; the method proposed by Bentham was known as the Panopticon which laid on the basis that human sensation came about by experience of space which could be applied to change prisoners. This proposal was dwelled on the internalization of punishment and change. The other proposal by Leroy was based on the thinking that hospital architecture could be applied to assist the sick and cure them[1]. Additionally, the spatial arrangement; they had a mutual belief that the hospital was to be taken as a machine for curing[2]. In the two programs, patients were categorized into varied sections and housed in an appropriate manner.

The surveillance and self-surveillance are both steps that are applied in the Panopticon so as to monitor and manage the operations at the hospital. This process needs employees to play a vital role in surveillance and management of operations at the hospital.

The aspect of surveillance was applied in Panopticon by Bentham to affect other sections of the institution. These institutions needed regular checking on, more so the hospitals[3]. This method needed a lot of staff the survey and manage the survey. Bentham saw panopticon as a model for self-surveillance[4]. It is here that limited number of employees was required to survey and manage the building[5]. Self surveillance involved the allocation of power to a number of people; while on the other hand, surveillance centralizes control or power. Surveillance required additional devices like CCTV and cameras on the architecture; these were additional expenses that were not found in the self-surveillance[6].

Reference

Bentham, Jeremy The Panopticon Writings. Ed. Miran Bozovic. London: Verso, 1995.

Foucault (1975). Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism,    http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOp  ticism.html.

Markus, Thomas A., ‘Re-formation’, Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin       of Modern Building Types, Routledge, London, pp. 95-145. 1993.

Vidler, Anthony, ‘Confinement and Cure: Reforming the Hospital, 1770-1789’, 1987, The        Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment, Princeton    Architectural Press, Princeton, pp. 51-72.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Vidler, Anthony, ‘The Architecture of Production’, 1990,   Architecture and Social Reform at the End of the Ancient Regime, The MIT Press,      Massachusetts, pp. 74-133.

UCL, 2012. Bentham Project, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/

[1] Bentham, Jeremy The Panopticon Writings. Ed. Miran Bozovic (London: Verso, 1995). p. 29-95.

[2] ‘Confinement and Cure: Reforming the Hospital, 1770-1789’ in Vidler, Anthony, 1987, The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton, pp. 51-72

[3] UCL, 2012. Bentham Project, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/ (accessed October 11, 2012)

[4] Foucault (1975). Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism, http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html (accessed October 11, 2012).

[5] ‘Re-formation’ in Markus, Thomas A., 1993, Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types, Routledge, London, pp. 95-145.

[6] ‘The Architecture of Production’ in Vidler, Anthony, 1990, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Social Reform at the End of the Ancient Regime, The MIT Press, Massachusetts, pp. 74-133.