lucadelladora – Dropcity, Milan’s new hub for architecture and design, has launched with a thought-provoking exhibition that confronts the spatial realities of prison life. Titled Prison Times – Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments, the exhibition runs from 3 April to 31 May 2025 and spans five expansive railway tunnels repurposed as part of the venue’s vision. With over 1,000 square metres of curated space, the exhibit takes visitors deep into the visual and structural language of incarceration.
The show invites reflection on how architecture plays a crucial role in designing systems of control. Visitors move through rooms filled with clinical, archive-like displays of prison objects from around the world. These artefacts—ranging from furniture to tools—are organised in taxonomic arrangements that underline the rigid order of life behind bars. As guests progress through the exhibition, they encounter stark geometries and spatial sequences that mirror the institutional logic of the carceral system.
Dropcity Opens Dialogue on Prisons Through Architecture
Dropcity founder Andrea Caputo believes design can no longer ignore its role in shaping systems of confinement. “The topic of incarceration is fraught with social, political, and ethical dimensions,” Caputo explained. “This is precisely why we chose it as the first exhibition at Dropcity—we want this space to foster critical engagement and dialogue around architecture’s impact on overlooked environments.”
Through Prison Times, Caputo and his team challenge the idea that prisons are out of sight and out of mind. Instead, they present incarceration as a deeply spatial issue, structured by design decisions with long-lasting consequences. The exhibition not only explores prisons as physical spaces but also interrogates their symbolic and social significance. In doing so, Dropcity positions itself as a center for serious conversation on architecture’s broader responsibilities.
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Prison Objects Reveal the Design of Control and the Architecture of Time
Prison Times, Dropcity’s provocative debut exhibition, avoids emotional cues and instead confronts visitors with the cold logic of institutional design. Objects like toothbrushes, uniforms, and metal utensils are arranged with museum-like detachment. Labelled, categorized, and repeated, they form a sterile archive that mirrors the standardized environment of prisons themselves. The layout invites viewers to observe rather than empathize, underscoring the objects’ utility over sentiment.
“These items are not designed for comfort or identity,” explains Dropcity founder Andrea Caputo. “They are shaped by specific institutional needs—durable, anonymous, and often dehumanizing. Their design serves the prison’s goals of control and containment.”
Each object tells a larger story about the system that created it. The repetition and uniformity convey how time and routine dominate prison life. According to Caputo, prison time is structured and unrelenting, creating a fragmented sense of duration for those inside. A plastic chair might signal compliance or confinement. A uniform toothbrush, used at the same hour each day, becomes a metronome of monotony.
This conceptual lens elevates the exhibition beyond physical design. It becomes an exploration of how space and time work together to govern life under incarceration. The architecture of time—measured in enforced routines and strict schedules—emerges as a silent yet powerful form of control.
In this way, Prison Times invites a broader conversation about how institutional design shapes not just environments but human experience. Every item on display becomes a fragment of a system engineered to dominate time, space, and identity. Dropcity’s exhibition reveals that in prison, even the most ordinary object can carry the weight of an entire ideology.
Dropcity Confronts Incarceration Through Art, Data, and Public Discourse
In its debut exhibition, Dropcity avoids the trap of romanticising prison life. Instead, Prison Times presents a layered, research-driven examination of incarceration, blending documentation with creative expression. The curatorial team balanced pain and oppression without aestheticising them, relying on a framework of research, dialogue, and artistic intervention. Alongside the main installation, standalone works by designers and artists bring individual voices into the mix, offering personal counterpoints to institutional structures.
A concurrent lecture series curated by Francesca Verona and Valentina Verdolini expands the conversation. Architects, prison officials, journalists, and academics share insights on incarceration’s broader systems and consequences. According to Andrea Caputo, founder of Dropcity, presenting such complex issues is a challenge of communication, not comprehension. “We often label issues as ‘problematic’ because we haven’t found the language to address them clearly,” he says. The exhibition positions itself as an open space for translating difficult subjects into shared understanding.
Redefining The Role of Architecture in Systems of Power
Located beneath Milan’s Central Station, Dropcity transforms abandoned railway tunnels into an experimental hub for design and architecture. Prison Times signals its ambition not just through content but intent—Dropcity isn’t just hosting exhibitions, it’s launching a movement. Caputo believes architects and designers must acknowledge their influence on structures of power, particularly within the carceral system. “Design can uphold or disrupt systems of oppression,” he explains. “We must choose the latter.”
This view shapes Dropcity’s future programming, which includes exhibitions, workshops, and civic collaborations focused on underrepresented social issues. The goal is to turn architecture from a passive backdrop into an active force for equity and critique.
By opening with Prison Times, Dropcity establishes itself not as a gallery for aesthetics but as a platform for critical cultural engagement.
