studio vy

More justice for the palace . courthouse contest . brussels

studio vy

The competitions' aim was to study possible futures for the 19th century palace of justice building in Brussels based on two scenarios.

Either the law court should be maintained in the original building, or another function had to be proposed.

Since we believe the law court institution is part of society it therefore had to be maintained in the centre of it, where it is today, meaning the physical centre of the countries' capital. The study explores the possibility of maintaining the palace of justice on the present location and strengthening the campus and its relation with the city while dealing with its shortcomings. The strategy is two folded. In the first place we focused on the renovation of the building's internal organization, and in the second place on its possible expansion and its relation towards the surrounding judicial buildings.

Strategy 1 - Renovation
A. Back to the origin
In the course of time reckless alterations and usages have rendered the original plan in a bad condition. In order to restore the original quality of Poelaert's Palace of Justice these will be removed, together with the elevators which are cramped up with the stairs in the margin of the building nowadays. The building gains space and light.
B. Two zones, two routes
The two existing organizational logics of the building are separated from each other in order to form a clearly defined public zone as a sequence of monumental halls in the centre of the building, and a strictly private zone for employees constituted by the corridors in the circumference. Each zone has its own routing and service facilities. In between these zones are the law-courts located where both user groups eventually meet.
C. Patios as infrastructure
The patios will not only be used for bringing light and air into the interior spaces, but as well services like elevators, stairs, restrooms and the necessary conducts. These slender, transparent service-columns won't occupy much of the patios while making the building perfectly operative.

Strategy 2 - Expansion
D. Poelaets' Alter ego
The intrinsic logic of the old building is mirrored underneath the Poelaertsplein, all program which has been extracted at ‘step A’, mainly law-courts, storage and car parking will be housed here with the possibility for further growth. This new part will form the centre of the campus with tunnels connecting the adjacent judicial buildings to form a continuous unity.
E. Public Sequence
The gigantic entrance portico of the old building will be turned into a interior space and incorporated into the extended monumental sequence of public halls. The main public entrance hall is relocated in between the lower part of the area in the North-West and the Poelaertsplein itself, with entrances on both the lower and the higher part of the city.

data

Project: Rethinking the Palace of justice
Location: Brussels, BE
Status: International competition (selected for exhibition in BOZAR)
Team: Pepijn van Voorst (studio vy)