People's Court!
Masters Design Project, '23.
The programme given for my proposal within the inner hill town is police/justice. The programme is broad in its potential spaces. For the project I am taking the concept of police/justice from a perspective of runanga and precedent studies of existing hilltowns, in particular, Vanalinn, Tallinn, Estonia. Runanga can be defined as ‘to discuss in assembly’, ‘holding counsel’ and ‘iwi authority’. Taking this concept and combining it with findings from hilltown studies the programme was broken down into three: court, watch + square.
+ Court refers to a court house, or assembly point, aimed to be designed in-line with concepts of Runanga.
+ Watch refers to the presence of watch towers and ‘eyes on the street’, taken from hill town precedents and urban theory.
+ Square comes from the site given for the project situated along the ridge line of Mount Victoria at an intersection of three tracks. The intention is to work with the site to create spaces that contribute back to the public space they situate within.
The project aims to combine structure, sustainability, site, Maori concepts and explorations of what a court is to create a concept that rethinks our traditional approach to the design of places in power
Process Work
Process Work - Vanalinn Analysis
Process Work - Programme Analysis
Justice District Elevation.
The programme created three individual buildings; a watch tower, the courthouse and an office building. The three buildings are wrapped around a public square, creating the Justice District of the hill town. Each buildings aims to contribute back to the public realm around it, with built in seating, shelters, and active facades.
Structure
The design consist of two structures, one being of mass timber structure and the other of steel. The choice to use a steel structure for the large courtroom (fig. 2) was the in response to mass timber not being able to meet the spans and structural design of the large monumental space. To negate this, the steel structure is purposefully designed in a way to encourage disassembly and re- use to minimise its impact.
Office Section
Office Perspective
Watch Tower Perspective
Watch Tower Section
Court Facade Design
The overall design concept questions the design and programme of a courthouse. In particular, how these spaces become more public and integral in their architectural nature. The function of a courthouse alone is already dominating and intimidating.
To challenge this, a facade that appears intricate, transparent and light was imagined. The court has a large monolothic roof which to this stage has been depicted as a solid blue structure.
The proposed facade imagines a delicate modular blue brick facade that allows light and openings to form between spacings, while allowing such a monolothic form to read as intricate and fragile.
