Keywords

Shaping Justice studio; Courthouse design; Visual computation; Typology; Variation

The language of the new courthouse is envisioned as a single volume dissected by multiple facades and natural light, courtyards and gardens all producing a porous instrument of light. A formal volumetric study showed that the same ratio of volume that can circumscribed by a cube, it can also be enveloped in a ring structure with double the area of facade. This ring makes the building keep the same recursive relationship from the building to the square, from the building to the courtyard, from the courtroom to the courtyard, and from the courtroom well to the spaces around the courtroom. These relationships follow the idea of the double skin formed in a tartan grid to provide the support for the main spaces of the project. The formal analysis focused on a study of built space versus empty space in a ratio of 50:100 or 1:2 and the project keeps this ratio on a 4x4 grid. A shape grammar produces all possible variations for built versus empty space through the ratio 8:16 or 1:2. Among them, the ones that kept the central four cubes as empty space were kept to suggest a main central courtyard while the organization of the other four cubes were mediated as smaller courtyards in the perimeter of the ring of the courthouse. The complete Federal courthouse for Anniston breaks down the 220K square foot program into a five-story building including all public, restricted, and secure areas as well as seven courtrooms. The building acquires a decisively urban character to relate to the character of the Noble Street to the East, the main spine of the city, and to the new proposed in the north by closing the street between the two plots and turning it into a pedestrian area. In doing so, the project avoids the secure setback and highlights the relationship between the courthouse and the square.