Chyutin Architects, in collaboration with Shmaya Zarfati, shared with us their first prize winning proposal for the District Courthouse in Jerusalem. Located on a newly designed main public square in the city center, the building houses all the judiciary levels except the Supreme Court, and contains 113 courtrooms and 135 judges’ chambers. The design of the court building connects and bridges among the host of diverse design languages of the buildings around it while creating a distinctive language of its own. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The court building is designed as a spatial composition in which a vertical rectangular prism, containing the judicial wing, penetrates into a horizontally laid-out prism, with a sloping upper face, housing the judiciary services and the foyer. The vertical prism is divided into two vertical slices, a broad one containing the courtrooms wing and a narrow one containing the judges’ chambers wing.
The building’s design as a simple, minimalistic composition, with each prism housing distinct activities, is in the modern architectural tradition that calls for form to follow function. The logic behind this principle is not merely formal; rather, its aim is to point to functional, technical and economic efficiency.
Architects: Chyutin Architects, in collaboration with Shmaya Zarfati Location: Jerusalem, Israel Team: Bracha Chyutin, Michael Chyutin, Shmaya Zarfati, Jacques Dahan, Keren Angelman Client: Government Area: 50000 Sq. M Project year: 2010
