Alberto Urrutia-Moldes
PhD; BSc Eng; BSc Const.
My Path to Expertise
2007
I have always enjoyed teaching people to understand the why of things. This pushed me to start working as a part-time teaching fellow in the Universidad del Bio- Bio. Since then, I never stopped teaching in Chile. I taught undergraduate students in areas of construction engineer and construction management using special permission from the prison service as a civil servant. So I was able to spend up to six hours a week in front of students.
2005
My interest to improve the conditions of prisons as well as the processes of the prison system led me to look for new knowledge that could help me to have a broader understanding of the prison system and better skills to identifying and addressing the problems.
I looked for advice from several academics. I had kids in school and a mortgage to pay, therefore, if I wanted to maintain my job in the city where I lived my options were very limited. I either start studying a master in construction or a new bachelor's degree. I finally decided to go back to the blackboard and start studying Civil Industrial Engineer.
2008
I was awarded the degree of
Bachelor of Science in engineering
and the professional degree of
Civil Industrial Engineer.
2010
With the new knowledge acquired as Civil Industrial Engineer, I was now asked by my superiors to create a new office in the Bio Bio-region and, of course, I accepted the new challenge. The regional PMO.
2011
In my new position, I won several funding awards for projects related to geo-referencing institutional data, developing reinsertion programs, and the development of the first Chilean international conference in prison design. This last project was aiming to produce a mindset change in the Chilean prison service about the right way of treating human beings in prison, by showing how problems are addressed by other countries and cultures.
2013
Move to the UK:
I applying for a scholarship to further improve my professional knowledge and skills through a PhD. So I left Chile bound to the United Kingdom.
2014
I started my doctoral studies at the school of architecture at the University of Sheffield with a scientific, quantitative driven research. Based on my experience on prisons and inmates, I was trying to understanding how the insufficient access of people to daylight and their exposition to inadequate quality of artificial light, could negatively affect their behaviour.
2015
I performed a review of the literature and presented my research idea in several conferences included the 28th session of CIE in Manchester 2016. I also obtained support from General Electric International in Eindhoven to run experiments in Chile.
December 2015
Two factors changed the direction of my studies: After many attempts, it wasn’t possible to obtain the permission of the Chilean prison service to perform the necessary fieldwork in Chile. Moreover, my supervisor resigned from his job at the University of Sheffield.
2016
I started with a new supervisor. My research changed dramatically from a quantitative approach to a qualitative one. I had to learn about social sciences, qualitative methods, and redirect my research to a new subject. This time, I was aiming to understand the broader process of prison design, looking for broader answers, to create new knowledge in the field. My new thesis: “Designing prisons to meet physical, psychological and social wellbeing needs.”
1993
My professional journey started here with the ambition of being an entrepreneur in the construction field. Before I finished my supervised professional practice as a construction manager assistant of a new building for the client 'University of Concepcion', I was hired by the same construction company 'Salfa Corp' to work with them as a construction engineer in a new project.
1993
I was awarded with the degree of
Bachelor of science in construction.
1994
During this period I was in charge of the control of field works in the refurbishing of the General Hospital in the city of Chillan.
1,219 m2; £720K
1994
Before the end of the refurbishing of Chillan Hospital, I was designated Manager Construction Engineer in the building project of the Head Quarters of 'Millalemu Forest Company' in Chillan.
2,100 m2; £823K
1994
I was later commissioned by Salfa Corp to work as a manager construction engineer for the project of building the Science Building at the ‘Universidad Catolica de la Santisima Concepción’ in the city of Concepcion.
1,295 m2; £771K
1995
A new project in Concepcion as a manager construction engineer in a 5 stories apartment building at Avenida Inglesa, Concepcion.
4,300 m2; £1,5M
1995
This year my dreams seemed to come true. I was invited by a friend who owned an electrical installations company, to work as co-owner of its construction division.
Key projects include:
-
Educational Sector: Construction of the central library, Catholic University. Concepción, Chile; 2,495 m2; £ 978K
-
Educational Sector: Construction of Buchupureo boarding school; 1,450 m2; £ 650k
-
Housing sector: Design and construction projects (five independent 140 to 250m2 housing projects in different locations of the Bio-Bio region)
1998
Two and a half years of hard work, with kind support and some very good achievements could not prevent me from realizing that I was not born to be an entrepreneur.
I needed to change course dramatically and quickly.
May 1998
Looking for my Destiny, I started working as a construction project manager at the Bio-Bio regional directorate of the Chilean Prison Service (Gendarmeria de Chile), with expectations of finding a more challenging job later.
However, the change and the challenge was a lot bigger than I ever expected. The Bio-Bio regional office of the prison service administrated at that time 14 closed prisons, 4 open prisons and 4 parole units in addition to the regional headquarters. However, the number of urgent needs derived from old buildings, inadequate sanitary conditions, and overcrowding, all together with a heart-breaking human situation (of inmates but also staff) was the most powerful incentive to put boots on the ground and try to work in solving problems.
2004
Back in 1998, when I started working at the Chilean prison service, I was managing one additional professional in addition to many untrained working personnel. During my work as head of the regional architectural office, the office grew to have four professionals, some technicians and, again, inmates as field working force.
September 2019
I submitted my PhD thesis and started preparing myself for my Viva examination.
2020
I was awarded the degree of Doctor in Philosophy.
November 2021 - current
Lecturer in Construction Management at the Bath Spa University partnership with GBS in Manchester.
2021
International Lecturer at the postgraduate diploma offered online in Latin America by Innova Publica, lecturing students on the relevance of addressing the physical and mental responses of people to the built environment.
2021
Appointed PI for a study on the built environment in the prisons and detention centres of two countries, Bolivia and Honduras, and the evaluation of its consequences on people's lives. An international consultancy project financed by the European Commission through the European Human Rights Instrument and operated by the Italian NGO Progettomondo.
2022
Publication of my book ""Health and well-being in prison design. A theory of prison systems and a framework for evolution"".
2022
Nomination of my book ""Health and well-being in prison design. A theory of prison systems and a framework for evolution"" to the ICPA 2022 Correctional Excellence Awards in the category of Research.
2023
Publication of the Chapter ""Prison Architecture in Chile: A Critical Realist Analysis of Prison Architectural Outputs Through the Lens of Organised Hypocrisy Theory"", in Moran, et al., 2023 (Ed.),
The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Design."