Breda Koepel District

Built in 1886 as part of a judicial complex on the outskirts of Breda, the Koepelgevangenis was a prison designed according to the then-popular concept of a panopticon to enable total surveillance of inmates. The facility was absorbed into the expanding city over the course of the twentieth century before ultimately being shut down. OMA’s project involves transforming a building meant for control and confinement into part of an open and welcoming urban district.