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Kent students asked to design torture device

Kent students asked to design torture device

A student at the University of Kent's School of Architecture has been excused from a masters module for which students are required to build a 'full-scale operable torture device'.

The student, who has asked not to be identified, told course tutor Mike Richards that he was uncomfortable at the prospect of working to a brief – which is illustrated by a skull and a plan view of a Gestapo torture table – which asked the 12-strong class to 'design, construct and draw a full-scale operable prototype torture device based on ergonomic principals'.

The brief continued: 'By employing the tactics of shock, our ambition is […] to elicit strong opinions and oblige you to adopt an ethical position on the practice of torture.'

The head of the architecture department, Professor Don Gray, confirmed that the student had lodged a complaint but said the module was justified as part of the 'contemporary artistic debate'.

He said: 'No-one has been forced to do this. The only person who has raised any objection has been given the opportunity to address the project from a different angle.'

He added: 'I agree that it is a slightly shocking introduction to a very serious long-term design project. I'm neither justifying it or defending it, but that is how we are going about it.'

But David Gloster – director of education at the RIBA – said: '[This brief] might have potential to give offence to some, and cause misunderstanding of its purpose.'

However, former RIBA president George Ferguson, described the course as 'stark raving bonkers' and added: 'I have seldom read such pretentious tosh!'

He continued: 'Of course it is part of the role of architectural education to stretch our minds – but not towards extreme discomfort and ugliness. Now is the time to think about the making of attractive places. The built environment is not some sort of "Brit Art" gallery designed to shock – or certainly should not be.'

The two-week project is in advance of a major project to design a new headquarters for human-rights group Amnesty International.

Click here to read the brief in full.

 


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Reader Response

Added: Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:07 GMT
Kersti Urvois, London, United Kingdom



It is really shocking that future architects
could even think of designing torture products!
Don't we learn from the examples that we are
shown every day such as children killing children!
What is it with these people! Why do students have to go through
these kind of ideas, that once developed, somebody will
reproduce and use it to destroy somebody, somewhere.
Evil should not exist, torture is evil.
Design a wonderful habitat for wonderful people, that is what and architect should be thinking of, creating something amazing, changing the world for a better life.


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Added: Tuesday, 5 February 2008 13:53 GMT
Pavlos Lefas, Athens, Greece


Imagine the crit… Who will be the jury? By which criteria will the torture devices be evaluated?
Let's be serious
Torture has infinitely more profound repercussions on people subjected to it than any 15 days design studio can, by its very nature, ever reveal. The students will be left with the impression that they are able to tackle every issue imaginable. What annoys me is that to provoke “responses” by all means and give a false (self-)assurance of “expertise”, and to leave in deep ignorance might prove to be “productive”. Architects are becoming design-producing machines, not able to evaluate their own or their peer’s output. The Homo-universalis paradigm is attainable no more...


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Added: Thursday, 31 January 2008 22:13 GMT
Ralph Kent, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Surely this is an exercise in tautology? Architecture students being asked to design a tool to drain the very last essence of the human soul, to the point of total submission; a device to push man to the verge of madness by being subject to cross-questioning by people who are, in reality, just going through the motions of questioning, but have, in reality, already decided your fate....


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Added: Thursday, 31 January 2008 16:18 GMT
Nicholas Xenakis, London, United Kingdom

Who said that there was such a thing as 'moral' architecture.
'Crank' is too kind a word for those who thought it was a suitable case for treatment.
This in the footsteps of a BNP candidate for RIBA president years after Albert Speer was dead and burried following his appearance at the RIBA HQ! Perhaps some of the nicest people one meets are torturers or potential torturers?


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