COURT OF JUSTICE INTERIOR

The old office interior in the building from the 80s was marked by Large closed rooms and long narrow, dark corridors. NØRD was asked to transform the existing working area to a modern, flexible and transparent environment, with a lot of space for informal meetings; without reducing the number of desks.

 

The nature of work done by judges and court employees, which requires a lot of concentration on the other hand made this project challenging. The openness and transparency should not come at the expense of visual and acoustic privacy.   To generate additional space to meet and relax NØRD has cut down the dimensions of the enclosed offices to the minimum requirements set by Dutch regulations. This optimization resulted in very spacious central zone (which doesn’t feel as a corridor anymore) with a lot of space for informal meet ups. The offices are equipped with fully glazed walls in oak frames. Visual privacy is achieved by strategically planting with secretions in the middle zone between the offices.   The lockers and cabinets were situated around the core of the building, together with the pantry and coffee machines. By clustering all this 'noisy’ facilities in a central area, the working areas remain as calm as possible.  

 

The walls are occasionally provided with handmade felt wall carpets with a colour palette referring to the department and floor number. In a natural way this will improve the orientation in the building. Also, the tapestries contribute to a comfortable acoustics in the meeting area.   The ceilings were mounted as 'islands' loosely between walls. In addition to more spaciousness, this solution has the advantage that office walls can be easily removed or placed without modifications to the ceiling.   The new interior is a pilot project which will be used as part of the redefinition of future work environments for the judiciary in the Netherlands. Transparent, convenient, flexible, clear and efficient within a limited budget.