The design of the new Magistrates’ Court building in Civic is a shocker from the journalists’ viewpoint.
The architects took me around this week, explaining how accused people in police custody will come from the police station and arrive underground. They then get unloaded and go through separate stairs, corridors and doors to pop up in the dock in the courtroom.
“”But what about our photographers taking dramatic pictures of the accused, head covered with a blanket being led from paddy wagon to court entrance?” I asked ruefully.
This is not a building designed for the media, but an elegant solution to a lot of demands and constraints: political; economic; practical and geographic.
The ACT courts needed a purpose-built courthouse, as its courts were scattered through the city creating security and efficiency problems. The Supreme Court has preferred to think of itself as a federal court, and awaited a federal response. This enabled the magistrates’ court people to play up to the ACT Government to secure a building for itself, leaving the Supreme Court in the old building.
Then the National Capital Planning Authority seized the opportunity for its pet project to convert Vernon Circle into a city streetscape with intersections, traffic lights and six-storey buildings. Oh no, said the parliamentary committee, you can only have four at the most and Vernon Circle will be left alone.
The architects, therefore, had to have a technical main address to Vernon Circle even though everyone would enter from the other side; had to integrate with the existing Supreme Court building; and had to build cheaply ($22 million) but make a public statement without the grandeur that marks buildings as public ones.
There were huge hurdles. This was no office building. Its clientele are magistrates and staff; the public as litigants and witnesses; prisoners in custody and other accused; and children facing court. They need to come together in the courtroom but, ideally, should not be mingling elsewhere.
The site presented geographic hurdles. The block is not square. It tapers to Vernon Circle. It is bound on the south by the Supreme Court building. The architects had to presume further development to the city and so had to keep access road alignments across London Circuit in mind.
MCC, a local joint venture of local practitioners Graham Humphries, Rodney Moss and Colin Stewart won the job ahead of larger interstate firms.
Moss is surprised at the lack of public response to the building. But he is quietly flattered. If Canberrans don’t like a new building they say so loudly. That they haven’t, he hopes, indicates approval. Of course, architecture that works well is often unnoticeable to the casual eye; it is only noticeable when it fails.
The solution began with three different sized blocks at angles to each other. The spaces between the blocks were then wrapped in glass. The glass wrap on the London Circuit side is rounded, thus taking care of the odd-shape block. The glass is not tinted so people can see in to people moving about the public areas, thus marking it as a public building. One of the three blocks sticks out to form a courtyard with the existing Supreme Court, thus integrating with it.
The reinforced concrete walls are not clad, but large strips are polished so they look like granite or marble, thus saving costs and integrating with materials of nearby buildings. Ordinary materials are used in special ways. Marble dust is combined with plaster for inside walls. Wood and steel are exposed, thus saving costs. The materials are presented honestly and with the untinted glass symbolise the transparency of justice.
The glass “”entrance” at the Vernon Circle end enables the public on the court levels to look at the park, without seeing the road below.
Clever use of glass and skylights puts natural light into all 10 courtrooms (which will house other sundry ACT tribunals as well).
Clever passaging and entrances enable magistrates and staff; children; prisoners and public to enter and leave the building and use parts of it quite separately while coming together in court. No more pictures of blanketed prisoners.
The building will be opened in a month or so.