Academy of Architecture for Justice

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The Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) promotes and fosters the exchange of information and knowledge between members, professional organizations, and the public for high-quality planning, design, and delivery of justice architecture.

Looking Sideways: Reframing Current Courthouse Design

By Amineh Warrayat posted 11-09-2015 01:18 AM

  

While the attention for judicial building has significantly increased from the public as well as the architectural world, the design principles of judicial buildings and courthouses remain rooted in nineteenth century standards. This session, “Looking Sideways: Reframing Current Courthouse Design”, begins to challenge the standard by presenting a new model on courthouse form through a sectional perspective. Eight models will be presented that capture the theory of having the building section be the main driver of form.

This session is built on eight years of research conducted by the Shape Computation Lab (SCL) at the School of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with the GSA and US Courts. The SCL is led by Associate Professor Dr. Thanos Economou and includes undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students from the School of Architecture. At last year’s conference the SCL presented the “Designing the Democratic Courtroom” session in collaboration with Chief Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer. This years’ presentation expands on the history and logic of courthouse design to continue the SCL’s project to study the evolution and future of the courthouse building typology. Dr. Economou and Heather Ligler, a 2014 AAJ Scholar and Graduate Research Assistant in the SCL will lead the session.

Sessions Learning Objectives:

  • Study how a shift from plan to section can challenge traditional understanding of the courtroom boundary and significantly expand the language of courtroom design.
  • Evaluate the three circulation networks supporting courtrooms by comparing planar and sectional solutions in historic and contemporary designs.
  • Study how a shift from plan to section can inform the arrangement of multiple courtrooms and their supportive circulation networks within the courthouse.
  • Identify how these three considerations (boundary, access, arrangement) considered in plan or section combine to classify existing courthouse designs within 8 proposed types.

Examples of work that "challenged the status quo" through a sectional perspective:

Total Theater for Erwin Piscator l Walter Gropius

The Guggenheim Museum l Frank Lloyd Wright

The Mercedes-Benz Museum l UN Studio

Learn more about the Shape Computation Lab at Georgia Tech: http://scl.coa.gatech.edu/

November 19, Thursday 3:15-4:45pm

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