news
- 01.04.2008
The Palace of Justice in Antwerp
Antwerp, Belgium
indirect roof lighting
March 2006 saw the official inauguration of the new Palace of Justice, a secular cathedral of metal, glass and wood measuring 78,000 m2. It was created by architect Richard Rogers, winner of an international design competition launched in 1999.
The design features six wings arranged around a public space at the hub - the concourse - and interleaved with fingers of landscaped garden. The façade, with large expanses of glass, admits plenty of natural light that floods all of the rooms, maximizing transparency both effectively and symbolically.
Rogers has come up with a building that does not dominate the city skyline: in reality, the structure rises no higher than the surrounding buildings, and the inclined crests of the architect’s novel roof design are reminiscent of Flemish church bell towers, or the sails on the nearby Escaut river.
Indeed it is the wave-like appearance of the roof that characterizes the Palace of Justice: a complex three-dimensional structure composed of triangular sections, resulting from a close collaboration between Richard Rogers & Partners, Ove Arup and VK. The distinctive superstructures are of hyperbolic paraboloid geometry, with each individual roof structure, in practice, comprising four interconnected quadrants. Each quadrant appears as a hyperbolic paraboloid on a square base. The linear elements that fill the quadrants are “woven” from wood, each consisting in an assembly of struts secured to a main rib. This method of construction allows the formation of a cladding with faultless curves. The wooden structure remains visible from inside the building, so that the visitor can appreciate the interaction of the different components.
The lighting system for the new Palace of Justice includes Nuvola fixtures, made by iGuzzini, which blend perfectly into the architectural context of the building.
exterior of the building
Client: Regie Der Gebouwen
Architectural design: Richard Rogers & Partners
Architectural Collaboration: VK Studio
Light fittings used: Nuvola
