David Chipperfield: City of Justice, Barcelona and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain.On land formerly occupied by military barracks bar·rack 1 tr.v. bar·racked, bar·rack·ing, bar·racks To house (soldiers, for example) in quarters. n. 1. A building or group of buildings used to house military personnel. , on a border site between Barcelona and l'Hospitalet, this new 330 000sqm City of Justice is due for completion in 2008. Bringing together legal departments that were previously located in 17 buildings that were scattered across the two cities, this precinct A constable's or police district. A small geographical unit of government. An election district created for convenient localization of polling places. A county or municipal subdivision for casting and counting votes in elections. PRECINCT. comprises eight new buildings that are formally and compositionally unified in an apparently haphazard arrangement. In form and disposition, the City of Justice breaks down the huge programme of accommodation into four judicial buildings clustered around a linked concourse and four independent buildings set around the periphery. The central cluster of buildings contains courtrooms at the ground level, and uses the concourse as a filter to gather people at the beginning and end of their judicial visit. The remaining four buildings provide accommodation for judicial support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services , such as forensic sciences The application of scientific knowledge and methodology to legal problems and criminal investigations. Sometimes called simply forensics, forensic science encompasses many different fields of science, including anthropology, biology, chemistry, engineering, genetics, , and include two commercial buildings with retail at grade. The blocks are expressively restrained, each with a concrete cage facade cast in subtly contrasting tones. By contrast the concourse building has a free-plan with exposed concrete slabs Concrete slab A shallow, reinforced-concrete structural member that is very wide compared with depth. Spanning between beams, girders, or columns, slabs are used for floors, roofs, and bridge decks. and woven mesh screens in front of frameless glazing. R. G. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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