19 | October | 2012 | [space + justice]

Intro to Complexity

by caroothers

Moving forward with the idea of physical lines as a solution to the courtset construction, the program has begun to develop. The program within this form mimics the overall form of the building, very linear. With overhead planes which create implied spaces throughout the building, these linear programmatic elements are able to be pushed and pulled to create moments and develop an interaction between them. The ribbons have established a set of rules and created programmatic reference within themselves. Some begin to become solid barriers, while others attempt to disappear in the light. The building form becomes an icon through its form. It needs its own set of design rules that must begin to form in the program of the building.

Each court room will be made of 3 ribbons/lines, separating the courtroom into three distinct spaces.
The separation of the court rooms will be a ‘solid’ ribbon or a ‘void’ ribbon. Solid ribbons house the court holding areas for the judicially challenged and void ribbons serve as circulation light wells. this relationship further distinguishes the dark/light solid/void pattern that is developing in as a metaphor for the building.
Public circulation will be perpendicular to the ribbons through the interior of the building, weaving through the columns. (there has got to be another metaphor here for ‘weaving’ circulation).
Private circulation will be perpendicular to the ribbons through the exterior of the building, weaving through ribbons.
The judge’s chambers will be at the exterior moment of this ribbon to allow for potential views to the exterior and a connection to the community which they serve.
Each ribbon will consist of more than one program, however, the programs within the ribbons will be related. e.g. the courtroom ribbons will house the courtrooms, as well as offices for the people who work in the room. The Solid ribbons will serve as a utility function and a security function. Since the judicially challenged people of the court are (in this humble writer’s opinion) a commodity of the court a utility that passes through the courthouse. This ribbon will be the holding cells, vertical circulation for those people, restrooms, and storage.

The lines themselves become a program specific element that can be defined for a specific use throughout the building.

Entry

by cchlebda

Around fall break, I started to think about how to delineate an entry sequence for the courthouse. Up to this point, I had been drawing the lobby as a large space without any program, doors, or other articulation worked into it. Because I want my flex space to be a publicly accessible cafe (visitors wouldn’t have to go through security), the cafe and its various support spaces would be located in the lobby. The issue I faced was how to make an entry space with a kitchen, restrooms, and dining area in the lobby along with security screening stations and queuing areas, as well as vertical circulation for the courthouse. I looked at the walls I had been drawing as dividers between a secure atrium and the cafe in my previous plan iterations, and I realized that the “poche” of these walls could be thickened to contain the service spaces of the lobby/cafe (kitchen, restrooms, circulation). The thickness of these “walls” turned spaces also created a human scale threshold to tuck the security screening station into, so that it wasn’t the first obvious thing a user would see upon entering the courthouse or cafe.

First Floor plan with articulated entry/atrium spaces

Entry/Approach sketches

As I worked on the lobby space, I continued to refine and develop the rest of the courthouse as well. I reexamined the courtroom in section and thought about how people in the alternate dispute resolution spaces (public) could start to see into the courtrooms from above. Likewise, I continued to develop the building form, refining the curvature of the roof and ceilings of the courthouse spaces.