City of Justice

The new law courts break a 240,000-square-metre programme into nine buildings, four of them linked by a continuous four-storey concourse. The British design team, with a Spanish practice, also designed all the public, courtroom and office interiors. The first building was completed in 2007.

Courts and legal departments had been scattered across 17 buildings in two neighbouring cities. The new complex, on a former military barracks at the border between them and next to two major roads, aims to improve efficiency, adapt to the changing needs of the judiciary and leave room for growth.

Splitting the programme into separate but related blocks on a public plaza breaks the rigid, monolithic image of justice and balances working and public areas. The blocks are cast in coloured concrete, each a different tone, with a regular grid of openings, and the glazed concourse at their base gathers the public spaces.