At the time of construction the High Court building seemed monumental in size. For its first eight years – until Parliament House was opened it stood out of proportion in the National Triangle.
The building – constructed by PDC Constructions (ACT) Pty Ltd — is 40 metres high with 18,515 square metres of internal floor area. The building itself covers 0.32 hectares (0.8 acres) and is surrounded by nearly 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of quarry tiles. It has a vast public hall 24 metres high extending in height through eight of the building’s 10 levels.
Parliament House with 287,780 square metres (including verandah and carparks) dwarfs the High Court.
The High Court building was designed with the public in mind.
With use of ramps and stairs the public hall gives easy access to the three courtrooms, the registry and the cafeteria. Two sides of the hall are enormous trussed glass walls giving an interaction with the exterior.
The building has 4000 square metres of glazed area and 30,000 cubic metres of concrete were used in construction. Most of the external and internal walls have been textured with a process known as “bush hammering”. It exposes the off-white hue of the granite aggregate. The internal concrete walls are softened and contrasted by the use of warm timbers as wall linings in parts of the courtrooms and public hall. Timber was used in the courtrooms because, aside from its aesthetic qualities, it is a sound absorbing material and helps courtroom acoustics. Seven Australian timbers were used in the building: coachwood, blackwood, blackbean, jarrah, Tasmanian myrtle, red tulip oak and red cedar.
You go up a long, paved ramp to the public entrance. A gradually gradiented waterfall, designed by Robert Woodward and constructed of South Australian speckled granite, runs the length of the western side of the ramp.
The public entrance is on Level 2. Staffa nd the legal profession use a side entrance on Level 1. The justices have a private entrance from the secure underground carpark.
Level 2 has the entrance to one of the public galleries for Courtroom No 1, the main courtroom in which all the constitutional cases and cases involving all seven justices are heard. A ramp north from Level 2 to Level 3 leads to Courtroom No 3, a working court for applications to a single justice. Courtroom No 3 has a jurybox with jury room and a witness stand. However, the court rarely hears oral evidence and a trial involving a jury is now only a remote possibility.
Level 3 contains the court’s registry and a double-height cafeteria with views over the lake. The ramp from Level 3 to Level 4 goes south, to Courtroom No 2, the High Court’s main working court mainly for applications for special leave and appeals from state courts and the Federal and Family Courts. Level 4 also contains the public entrance to the upper gallery of Courtroom No 1. From Level 4 the visitor can then return by open stairs or back down the ramps.
The public circulation through ramps and stairs around the lower levels provides varied views of the great space of the public hall. The ramps and stairs also work as a demarcation between the public areas and the private areas above served by secure lifts and stairs. The justices’ chambers and skylit library are on the top level with access to a rooftop garden. The justices use secure lifts to enter and leave the courtrooms in private.
The public hall is used as a venue for cultural exhibitions and musical concerts. The tiles on the floor are cut from Aurisina, an Italian marble, one of the very few imported materials in the building. Photographic portraits of all chief justices and justices of the High Court are displayed on the walls of the public hall, and a display case shows items concerning the history and operation of the court.
Courtroom No 1 is used for cases requiring all seven justices to sit, and ceremonial occasions. It has two levels of public gallery. The courtroom is 17.5 metres high. Where walls are not left as bush-hammered concrete, they are panelled with red tulip oak from Queensland and New South Wales, as is the furniture in the gallery. The long curved bench and bar table are made of jarrah from Western Australia. The ceiling panels are of blackwood. A woven tapestry, incorporating the badges of each State from the Shield of Arms of the Commonwealth surmounted by the Crest of the Commonwealth, hangs on the wall next to the bar table. The tapestry — 4.3 metres by 2.5 metres wide – was designed by Ron Brooks and woven in the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in South Melbourne.
The doors of Courtroom No 1 – designed by Les Kossatz and George Baldessin — feature a silvered bronze grid partly recessed and fixed into the laminated plate glass. The theme of the design is a shield, emphasising the Court’s function as a protector of the Constitution and the liberties of the citizen.
Courtroom No 2 has similar wall panelling and fittings to Courtroom No 1, although the ceiling is of painted moulded plywood. In Courtroom No 2 the Commonwealth coat of arms, above the bench, is a cedar carving designed by Derek Wrigley. Courtroom No 2 is used for hearing applications for special leave to appeal and is fitted with video links to other cities in Australia.
Courtroom No 3 is furnished with coachwood timber with a ceiling mainly of glass which provides a high level of natural lighting. The Commonwealth coat of arms – again by Derek Wrigley – is made of copper rod material.
Timber was used in the courtrooms because, aside from its aesthetic qualities, it is a sound absorbing material and helps courtroom acoustics. Seven Australian timbers were used in the building: coachwood, blackwood, blackbean, jarrah, Tasmanian myrtle, red tulip oak and red cedar.
The courtrooms have full video monitoring for the High Court’s Reporting Service, which delivers transcripts for the public via the internet and to practitioners and litigants.
The artworks in the building are mainly abstract designs of symbolic significance. The body that supervised the project for the Commonwealth, the National Capital Development Commission, described the works in a statement on the day of the ceremonial opening:
“In the public hall, artist Jan Senbergs’ aluminium wall panels provide images related to the history, functions and aspirations of the High Court. The six panels on the Constitution Wall, facing the main entrance, have images such as a lighthouse which conveys the search for knowledge and which has a double shaft representing two sides of a case. . . . Historical figures represent the founders of the Constitution. Aboriginal culture is symbolised by the rising of the seas which occurred 18,000 years ago and slowly cut off the continent of Australia. . . . A railway line and a ship represent the divisions which existed before Federation. . . . . The adjoining States Wall carries panels symbolising the six States.”
Victorian artist Les Kossatz designed the two coats of arms for the exterior. The British coat of arms faces north on the lake side and the Australian coat of arms faces south towards Parliament. Each is in three dimensions and made of sand-blasted glass and acrylic.