By the AAJ Communications Committee
Personal Information:
Where did you go to school and what degrees did you earn?
MF: I went to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for a BArts in Architecture, and then the University of Arizona for a MArch and BArch.
Experience:
What was your role in the AAJ before you joined the Leadership Group and what other committees are you involved in?
MF: I was the AAJ Research & Technology Committee Co-Chair from 2006 – 2015 and since 2007, continue to be actively engaged on the AAJ Sustainability Committee.
Why Justice?:
What prompted you to begin working within the field of justice architecture?
MF: My focus on the impacts of architecture began in my 3rd year of architecture at UNCC when I was encouraged to combine two of my passions – architecture and psychology. I decided to explore the impacts of architectural spaces on behavior in a highly restrictive environment. I was drawn to prison design – the most restrictive environment, with an innate mission to “correct” or “rehabilitate”. My prison thesis was the beginning of a search for ways to quantify the profound impacts of the built environment. Years later, I was able to escalate my research upon a second meeting with my soon-to-be mentor, Jay Farbstein, PhD, FAIA, a leader in justice facility research and planning. I still find working within the field – on all types of justice architecture (law enforcement, corrections, courts, land ports of entries) – highly rewarding and important. These are (mostly) public facilities which impact all of us.
What justice-related issue do you feel most passionate about and why?
MF: In one word - Dignity. I believe it is our responsibility to provide dignity in all justice architecture - to continue to seek a balance between security and dignity.
- For a law enforcement facility, this may translate to community policing strategies;
- For a correctional facility, dignity means providing a humane, safe and normative environment for both inmates and staff;
- For courts, dignity refers to feeling safe, reflecting values of a community and delivering justice;
- For a Land Port of Entry, this means providing a welcoming experience for visitors to the United States and a positive work environment and ease of operations for staff.
The Future:
What do you hope to contribute to justice architecture during your term on the Leadership Group?
MF: I want to focus on the greater sustainability issues (as delineated in the AAJ Green Guide to Justice) and partake in more and more research to help understand the impacts of what we do. All in all, to look at justice more holistically as a system. To do this, we need to work more with our colleagues in the other knowledge communities and work with other disciplines. I was so impressed at my first Knowledge Leadership Assembly this past July – all the Knowledge communities and AIA groups share similar challenges and have meaningful and insightful perspectives to share. I would like to see a greater focus on mental health and the justice system with expertise from justice, health, public architects, education, design, design for aging, religion and more.
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Melissa Farling is managing principal of the HDRs Phoenix office. With more than 20 years’ experience, Farling is well known for quantifying the behavioral and physiological impacts of architecture and applying those findings to environments, ranging from correctional facilities to commercial projects. Farling has co-chaired the AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) Research Committee since 2006, served as one of the principal investigators on the first neuroscience-architecture research conducted in a jail setting in 2008 and assisted with the AAJ Sustainability Committee to create “Green Guide to Justice” in 2010.
(Return to the cover of the 2016 AAJ Journal Q1 issue)