Agency + City Justice Precinct Design

Agency + City
MACQUARIE STREET JUSTICE PRECINCT
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Table of contents
Design stance 4-6
Design Brief 7-15
Site Analysis 16-18
Readings 19-28
Justice settings 29-64
Precedents 65-76
Diagrams and Sketches 77-97
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Design Stance
SUSTAINABILITY
CULTURAL
SOCIAL
HISTORICAL
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Heritage buildings are not built without a logic, it embodies the
cultural, historical and social political ideas and forces of the time that
it is built, becoming a tool that tells a tale of its time. The Sydney 2030
calls for the Police museum to be kept as it is a part of the cultural
ribbon, therefore it is wise to celebrate its presence within our site
and at the same time take advantage of this to enhance our building
with its existence.
Justice and law are meant to protect people, however, people
distanced themselves from justice due to fear. This fear is not
unreasonable as it is in human nature to fear the unknown, therefore
there is a need to bring the people closer, to learn, to get to know
about law, and to lead law into their daily lives.
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The buildings take a part of the land away as its own from nature and
the people, therefore it is important to find ways that the building
could offer what it has taken back to nature and the people living in
the city that is sitting in.
The buildings take a part of the land away as its own from nature and
the people, therefore it is important to find ways that the building
could offer what it has taken back to nature and the people living in
the city that is sitting in.
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Design Brief
THERAPY + PREVENTION + INQUISITION +
EDUCATION +PRESERVATION
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Coroner’s Court + Forensics
Labs
Although there is currently a Coroner’s court in Glebe, it does not
have a dedicated Criminal Forensics Pathology lab, it relies on
outsourcing from expertise from other labs such as the Medical
Forensics Lab Adjacent to the building and other forensics lab located
else where.
Although the Parramatta Police Station has a Crime Scene Operations
Branch, but the 23 facilities that facilitates these investigations are
scattered across the state.
A common source of anguish for family members of the deceased
concerns the considerable time that can elapse between when a
death is first discovered and when coroner’s findings are made.
Delays can begin with forensic medical examinations and then
continue at the police investigation stage. A Law Reform Commission
of Western Australia study showed that between 2004 and 2010, the
average time for a death in prison to reach inquest actually increased
by 10 months, to 31 months.
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The preventative aspect of investigations and inquests is also
consistent with their therapeutic jurisprudence approach, in which
the aim is to help with the healing process for the family and others
involved in the inquest, together with the broader community and
society. The linked goals of prevention and healing are also associated
with other issues in the public interest, such as truth, accountability
and fairness.
Therefore opportunity to create a precinct that that can hold all these
facilities in one rose. This will not only make increase the speed of
investigation of criminal cases, but also decrease administration time,
and paper between different parties.
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Integrating the Justice and
Police Museum of
The Justice and Police Museum has always been a cultural icon of
Justice in Sydney since it is established as the water police station. It is
now listed as cultural heritage and is included in the Cultural ribbon in
the Sydney 2030 Vision.
Even now Museum evoke and represents the dark past of the Iron
Hammer of Justice in Sydney, showing all the harsh side of Justice
within when corporal and capital punishment is still implemented.
However ,one of the other major displays within the police and justice
museum were records of past criminal cases. The display shows
different historical records of criminal cases in the bushranging past,
the murder weapons that are related to these cases, the portraits of
the people involved, personal possessions death masks and images.
It also shows many more display that are more recent in the history
captured by 20th century cameras, images and photographs in the from
crime scene, portraits and mush shots, records of crash, fire, robbery,
murder and all kinds of murder investigations.
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These aspects of the museum not only support the existence of the
coroner’s court, it also created a possibility to expand the museum
beyond what is available now.
Educating the Public
Since the most important aspect of coroner inquisition is to discover
and identify any cause of danger to the health and safety to the public,
the museum can be expanded to display these findings to educate and
warn the public of these issues.
Bringing the Public closer to the Law
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Integrating the museum with the precinct provided an opportunity to
arrange tours to the court and forensics labs attached. This not only solves
the problem of the lack of audience in the public gallery in hearings; it also
allows the public to learn about Justice, shortening the distance between
Justice and the Public.
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Coroner + Therapeutic
The main role of coroners are not to investigate suspicious deaths that
may be related to criminal cases (although they do get them), the main
role of coroners and forensic pathologists are to investigate and
determine the case of unexplained natural deaths, and thereby
provide countermeasure to these type of cause of deaths to enhance
and "preserve" the well being of the public community by "preventing"
other similar cases from happening.
These findings also bear important relevance to the next of kin of the
deceased one, helping them in their grief - therefore there is a
Therapeutic side of this institute and it may be wise to include a
Therapeutic section in the building.
At the same time, forensics pathologists that are new to their job may
be susceptible to emotional attachments to their subjects and
therefore be emotionally stressed in on their job and would also
benefit from the Therapeutic counselling services too.
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Conclusion + Program
The aim of the Justice building is to enhance the quality and speed of
Coronial Investigations in New South Wales. Therefore there is a need
for the Coroner’s court to be attached to Forensics Facilities to
shorten the time of processing documents and communications
between the coroner and the Forensics Pathologists.
The Museum could act as an important catalyst and medium between
the Public and the awareness on public health and safety and Justice
itself. This can be achieved by making the Museum a part of the
building program.
To help the loved ones of the deceased grieve, and to help some of
the forensic pathologists in their work, therapeutic facilities can be
helpful. At the same time the facilities could also be opened to public
use.
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Therefore the program that should be included in the building are:
◦ 1. Coroner’s Court
◦ 2. Forensics Facilities
◦ 3. Therapeutic Facilities
◦ 4. Integrated Justice and Police Museum
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Site analysis
Site Constraints
Street frontage height should be approximately 1:1 with a minimum
of 20m and maximum of 45 meters
Maximum building height should be 55meters according to the LEP to
avoid overshadowing
Macquarie Street is listed within the Heritage Street Front list,
therefore it is important to preserve the façade value of Macquarie
Street front.
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According to the DCP our site is
within a special character area as
show, the setbacks are 10 meters
from Macquarie Street and
8meters from Albert Street above
the building frontage height.

Readings
IM A GE S O F JU STIC E | D E N N I S E . C U R T I S A N D J U D I T H R E S N I K
M E M O RY A N D PLA C E | A S S I , E
HE R ITA GE A S A PE D A GO GIC AL R E SO U R CE A N D PLA TF O R M F O R E X PLO R ATIO N
IN A R C HITE C TUR AL D E SIGN E D U C ATIO N | M A R I ´ A I N E ´ S L A P A D U L A , C A R O L I N A
Q U I R O G A
LE GA L A R C HITE CTU RE: JU STIC E , D U E PR O C E SS A N D THE PLA C E O F LA W B Y
LIN D A M U LC AHY
R E PR E SE NTIN G JU STIC E : IVE N TIO N , C O N TR VERSY A N D R IGHTS IN C ITY - STA TE S
A N D D E M O CR ATIC C O U R TRO OMS | J U D I T H R E S N I K A N D D E N N I S C U R T I S
R E IN TE RPR ETIN G SU STA IN A B LE A R C HITE CTU RE: THE PLA C E O F TE C HN O LO G Y|
S I M O N G U Y , G R A H A M F A R M E R
A F U TU R E U N D R E AMED: THE F O R E NSIC PHO TO B E YO N D THE D A R K R OO M,
C A SE FILE A N D C O U R TR OO M: M E M ORY, M E D IA TIO N , M U SE O LO GY | C A L E B
W I L L I A M S
THE R O LE O F THE C O R O N ER | V I C T O R I A N I N S T I T U T E O F F O R E N S I C M E D I C I N E
A D A Y IN THE LIF E O F A F O R EN SIC PA THO LO GIST| V I C T O R I A N I N S T I T U T E O F
F O R E N S I C M E D I C I N E
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Images of Justice | Dennis E.Curtisand
JudithResnik
The article illustrated how the image of Justice, mainly – the image of
Justicia has been used as a symbol of justice over time since its
emergence in the ancient times to the recent modern times. The
article illustrated the evolution of the figure of Justicia through history
in different culture and age by referencing several paintings, sculpture
and scriptures made throughout the ages. This article helped me
understand the origins for those symbolism, and provided me a
framework of what the sense of Justice should be like by referencing
the symbology that were evident and used throughout the ages.
However, this article is hard to read and is easy to lose focus after
several pages of reading as it touches on many aspects of the
evolution and mutation of the images of Justice. Therefore, I will use
this part of this article as a framework of my notion of justice.
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Memory and Place| ASSI, E
A place holds a memory, a memory of what I was, what it had been, its
standpoint in the cultural importance for the community.
However, when a buildings replaces the place it often creates a new
importance of its own, temporarily removing its importance, simply
saying, a new building often takes the place from the people, claiming
to be its own.
Therefore a building should take a more sensitive approach when
occupying a site, it should not fully remove all space from the public.
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Heritage as a pedagogical
resource and platform for
exploration in architectural design
education| Marı´a Ine´s Lapadula,Carolina Quiroga
Heritage buildings are not built without a logic, it embodies the
cultural, historical and social political ideas and forces of the time that
it is built, becoming a story box that tells a tale of its time. The Sydney
2030 calls for the Police museum to be kept as it is a part of the
cultural ribbon, therefore it is wise to celebrate its presence within our
site and at the same time take advantage of this to enhance our
building with its existence.
22

LEGAL ARCHITECTURE: JUSTICE, DUE PROCESS
AND THE PLACE OF LAW by Linda Mulcahy
REPRESENTING JUSTICE: IVENTION,
CONTRVERSY AND RIGHTS IN CITY-STATES AND
DEMOCRATIC COURTROOMS |Judith Resnik and
Dennis Curtis
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Reinterpreting Sustainable
Architecture: The Place of
Technology| Simon Guy, Graham Farmer
Out of the 6 ecologic theories, I have chosen 3 to be the base of my
sustainability stance.
Eco-Technic: to use sustainable passive and active climate control
technologies to control the internal environment to achieve maximum
natural daylight and thermal comfort to save energy.
Eco-Social: by creating a public space for public use, the design aims to
return a part of the land to the public community for social interaction
and other activities.
Eco-Cultural: the design aims to preserve and enhance the culture and
heritage value of the site and its surrounding buildings. The design aims
to preserve, integrate and enhance some of the existing buildings fabric
assimilating the old and the new and celebrating this marriage at the
same time.
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A Future Undreamed: The Forensic
Photo Beyond the Darkroom, Case-
File and Courtroom: Memory,
Mediation, Museology | Caleb Williams
The Justice and Police Museum enabled the public to come close in
contact with historic crime scenes and information on important
inquests in a pictorial form in several exhibitions.
This “re-representation” of historic crime scenes and inquests
encourages critical discussions, creative speculation, and historic
learning.
This kind of exhibitions also educates the public on some of the
coroners findings such as the Asbestos incidents or other preventable
cause of deaths, further enhancing the implementation of ideas on
public health and safety to the community.
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The Role of the Coroner |
Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
"Many people think that the Coroner is largely involved in the
investigation of suspicious deaths that may have a criminal
background such as suspected murders. This is NOT the case.
Homicide investigations form a very small part of the work of
Coroners perhaps only around 1% of the deaths they investigate. The
other 99% of cases reported to a Coroner involve unexplained natural
deaths and deaths suspected to be from direct or indirect trauma."
"the results that we find are very relevant to the next of kin, and in
helping them in their grief" "sometimes our findings are directly related
in a clinical sense to their next of kin"
"When I first started my role, it take some time to get used to..... I
sometimes think about things when I get home" - the Forensics
Pathologists might need therapeutic assistance too
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A day in the Life of a Forensic
Pathologist| VictorianInstituteof Forensic
Medicine
forensics pathologist: ".....my job is to find out the cause of death of a
person, and what that death mean to the community....." " ...identify
the patterns and hazards in the community that can be prevented in
the future, this result wold then be recommended to the coroner, and
then the coroner would then compare it to other deaths so the
coroner can come up with a recommendation that might be put in
place to prevent such deaths in the future." "......It can be said that,
part of the role of a forensic pathologist is to be a public health
specialist...." ".... we get to work with families to help them understand
what happened when their loved one died...."
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Bibliography
Willaim. Caleb, A Future Undreamed: The Forensic Photo Beyond the
Darkroom, Case-File and Courtroom: Memory, Mediation, Museology,
Law Text Culture Vol 13 20090, page 164-186
María Inés Lapadula & Carolina Quiroga (2012): Heritage as a
pedagogical resource and platform for exploration in architectural
design education, The Journal of Architecture, 17:4, 591-607
Dennis E. Curtis and Judith Resnik, Images of Justice, The Yale Law
Journal, Vol. 96, No. 8 (Jul., 1987), pp. 1727-1772
Linda Mulcahy, LEGAL ARCHITECTURE: JUSTICE, DUE PROCESS AND
THE PLACE OF LAW, Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2011
Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis, REPRESENTING JUSTICE: IVENTION,
CONTRVERSY AND RIGHTS IN CITY-STATES AND DEMOCRATIC
COURTROOMS, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011
Simon Guy, Graham Farmer, Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture:
The Place of Technology, Journal of Architectural Education: Fubuary
2001, pp. 140–148
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Justice Settings
HORNSBY LOCAL COURT
PARRAMATTA LOCAL COURT
PARRAMATTA JUSTICE PRECINCT
LAND AND ENVIRONMENT COURT
LAW COURTS UNSW
CORONERS COURT
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Hornsby Local Court
My first ever visit to a justice environment was a trip to Downing
centre to file a dispute over a Motor vehicle accident (not my fault) 2
years ago, after a brief security check at the entrance, and such, I
moved quickly to do what I was supposed to do here and leave as
soon as possible, the only thing I noticed about the building is that, it
is much like an office building.
The Court that I went to last on the 22 and 23 of April was the
Hornsby local court.
The building is a storey building built into a slope, with a sublevels.
Located just next to the Police station, it at first glance it is fairly
intimidating. Due to the fact that this is my first time to this place, a
sense of nervousness overcame me as I walked into the vicinity of the
building distracting
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me from the general surrounding scenery as I try to work out what
procedures is necessary of me before I sit in a hearing.
Joining me in the gallery was a wide range of people, at first I was
amused by the amount of public listening to the hearings besides me.
However as the court proceeds, it was then revealed to me that I am
probably the only public listener in the hearing as one by one, the
people on the seats stood up and became defendants of different
cases one after another. The flows of the court hearings are seamless
from case to case, aside from the part when the Magistrate entered
the room at the start of the hearing, and everyone stood and bowed
to the Magistrate.
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After a case has been dealt with, the lawyers and their clients stood,
bowed and left the room, then, the court proceeds to the next case,
and the next lawyer and his/her defendant stood up from the gallery
and took the place of the last one. There are no docks, no police
officers handling defendants, no wigs, no hammers, no jury, just like
another day in the office. In fact each hearing was so swift that one
could barely tell the start of a case from the end of another.
The cases heard are fairly mild, about 4 cases concerning drink
driving, 2 cases about individuals fighting, one juvenile case also on
fighting, and another is a preliminary hearing on property matters.
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People are also free to come in and leave as they will, in fact, in the
whole 2 hours I am in the court, the court has dealt with about 8
cases, I am unable to come up with an exact number, and there are
about more than 20 people entering and leaving the courtroom
within that period of time. And at a point, a father and son came in
and sat beside me, and the father was teaching the son about the
what the Magistrate, the lawyers are doing while briefly explaining
about the court, the son seems to be less than 10 years old ( this is
probably his school assignment or something).
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In general, this court visit gave me a peculiar mix of public and formal
feeling, on one side, it is a setting where it is focus on dealing with
matters of the law, which just by the wording gives a sense of
formality, respect and absolute, on the other hand, it is as it said, it is
open to the public. It is in a way, just like an office that deals with the
law, and its client are the general public.
35

Parramatta Local court
After my first visit to the local court of Hornsby, my second visit to the
Parramatta Courthouse feels much less intimidating; the only difference
is that Hornsby local court does not have a security check point,
whereas the Parramatta Court house has a X-ray scanner located on the
podium level. The thing that indicates the entry of the building is the
large font located on the top of the entrance doorway, followed after
that is like an airport level security check where bags are scanned with
an x-ray and I am asked to pass through a metal detector doorway.
Maybe it is because I frequently travel (up to 2 times every year) I am
used to these kinds of security protocol, I don’t feel intimidated at all,
the staffs are also doing their job in a matter of fact thing, it is as if they
could care less of what your purpose is in this building, they are just
doing their job there, and they are probably happy that there
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are people coming through the scanner, as from my observation, the
traffic there is not high at all, on other times the security are just either
talking or on their phones playing candy crush.
After an inquiry from the registry, it was revealed to me that Parramatta
Court takes their break from 1 till 2 pm, leaving me, who each there at
half past 12 with only 30 minutes of court time before lunch time, so I
hurried to the courtrooms to pick up what left of the hearings.
The Parramatta Court rooms are significantly different from the Local
Hornsby court; the difference is already evident from the waiting area.
The waiting area in the Hornsby local court is a small 4 by 5 meter room
serving 2 court, whereas the Parramatta court waiting area is a hallway
6~7 meter wide and runs almost as long as the width of the building
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serving up to 7 court at once, it has about 8 seats for each court room. In
conclusion, it feels like the waiting area for an airport. Unlike the cheap
and bare walls like the local Hornsby court, the walls of the Parramatta
court are lined with stained wooden acoustic panels; the carpet is also a
luxurious warm earth color, creating a “executive” or “institutional” look.
The moment I open the door to the courtroom, my first thought is that,
this is what a court should look like. The colors of the court are just like
the lobby, a palette of earth tone brown. There is a dock that is fully
enclosed in a glass wall on the side of the courtroom, the the tables are
all black wooden tables to make the white documents stand out on the
table, and the Justice is sitting on the highest point of the court with a
tapestry hanging behind the Justice.
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However, the way the court handle the cases are not too much
different from the local courts, the same seamless flow between
cases. The only exception to this is the occasional appearance of
police officers handling a defendant appearing from the door behind
the dock from the opposite room leading the defendant into the dock
onto the cold steel chair (one observation I made is that there are
more than one seat for the chair in the dock, indicating that there
could be more defendants being trialled at once in some cases), and
then leading them back to the opposite room once their case had
been adjourned.
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After this hearing session finished and we all bowed to the Justice and
left the room, I realised that there is another hearing still going on in
the court room next door, so I joined it, and the first thing I noticed is
that the room is mirrored to the room next to it, the most notable
change is the position of the dock which is mirrored to the room next
to it. From this it occurred to me that there are multiple layers of
circulation to the court house typology. From what I see, there are up
to 3 types of entrances:
• one for the judge/justice/ magistrate,
• one for the general public, lawyers, and some defendants
• one that directly enters the dock from a separate circulation,
allowing the police to handle the defendants that were in custody
that are summoned to court.
So I took picture of the fire escape plan
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42
Level 2 Fire Escape Plan
Level 1 Fire Escape Plan

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Ground Floor Fire Escape Plan

So I took picture of the fire escape plan.
What I notice from the plans are that the building basically separated
into 2 halves, one side are mainly courtrooms, the other half are the
circulation and other administrative and interview rooms. The
courtrooms are surrounded by a separate circulation for the Justice
and also for the defendants that are in police custody.
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Parramatta Justice Precinct
The entrance to the trials court is grand and could be prestigious. But
it does not done any ornamental features to make it grand, the
entrance laid in white stone, a path of white, a sense of justice. The
façade is a collage of textures, all its lines in rectilinear motion,
conveying a sense of order through various disciplines. Its revolving
door not only controls the exit and entrance speed of the people, it
also conveys a sense of total control over the situation.
Once inside the building, the lobby is a spacious double height space
with leather seat chairs scattered on one side, its walls seems to be
marble, conveying a sense of professional luxury. Going through, the
security, which reminds me of airport security, I am immediately
invited to a flight of escalator, as it is the only other element that
stands out from the space after the security check point. Resisting the
temptation of going straight up, I walked around, and found that the
registry is on the right hand side, in a spot that is blinded by the
presence of the escalator (which in my opinion is not a good design
idea).
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Aside from this, I found a small kitchenette, equipped with
microwave, tap and sink a fridge and microwave over, all of these
seem unused and forgotten. There are also a few interview rooms
around the escalator, but at this point, I decided to finally take the
escalator.
To my surprise, the escalator circulation stopped at the second floor,
abruptly, into another small space, this is not another lobby, but a
waiting space servicing the 2 courts on level 1. According to the
explanation from the security guard standing next to the lift, the rest
of the floors seem to be only available via elevator access (the
elevator does go from ground floor all the way to the 5th floor). Due to
the fact that this is the first time I had no choice but to take a lift up to
court rooms, a sense of nervousness overcame me as I stepped into
the lift.
The second level of the courthouse consists of 4 courtrooms, an
interview room for each courtroom, a waiting area, and offices and
other administrative facilities that are hidden from the public’s view
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(there is a large patch of blacked out area on the fire escape plan that
seems to be accessible via electronic security coded door). Natural
lighting is available from the long end of each side of the elongated
waiting area, it is only a small area, but it is still available. The
arrangement of chairs looks like a meeting/ discussion area with
chairs facing each other with sometimes a table as a set.
The third and fourth floor on the other hand, not only have access to
natural light from the ends of the elongated waiting space, since there
are only 2 courts on each of these 2 level, these 2 level also get a wall
of glass where natural light floods the waiting area. In comparison to
the waiting area on the first and second level, the waiting area on
third and fourth floor feels much more inviting, instead of a place
where you sit to await your fate, it feels like a place where you sit to
wait casually waiting for the next case to happen.
At 12.55pm I decided to enter the courtroom before the case starts.
The entrance to the courtroom consists of a double door, after
passing through the threshold of the first door, that instantly after the
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first door closes all noise and sound from the waiting area
disappeared, opening the door that leads to the courtroom itself, the
door opened with a click and I caught a glimpse of two lawyers
equipped with wigs and robe talking before freaking out and closed
the door. I thought to myself – this is the real deal. After mustering
enough courage, I opened the door entered the courtroom and sat
down.
To my surprise, the courtroom environment is much more pleasant
than I thought it would be, the seats are all cushion padded, the color
tone of the materials within the court are all light earth toned, and
the public gallery has natural light from a large window on the side
(about 2~3 meter in width, full height) providing a food view of the
trees canopies of Parramatta, giving an illusion of the building being in
the midst of a forest.
However, when the court adjourned, the whole situation changed, it
is a robbery case.
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The session starts with the “fully equipped” judge entering the room
and everyone bowed, followed by a brief introduction of the case
concerned by one of the lawyers before the defendant and jury panel
was brought in. from the side, 2 large security guards brought the
defendant to the dock, which is just a chair with waist height wooden
walls surrounding it. The jury panel consist of 10 people from a
variety of racial background and age groups, all seated behind a
computer screen. After all this setup, the one of the lawyers finally
started to carefully explain and illustrate the case, with evidence
obtained from the defendants, victims, prosecutor and police.
Although I am unable to sit through the case, but unlike the other
local court cases where each case are dealt with within a matter of
minutes, court cases in the trials court lasts for several hours per-day
for several sittings that could last for weeks or even months.
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Land and Environment court
The land and environment court offered grouped tours aimed at
educating individuals from institutes that are related to Land and
environment for example, law students and of course architecture
students that are involved in the built environment. As students we
formed a group and arranged for a tour of the court.
The Land And Environment Court is located on Macquarie St, instead
of taking up a whole building it shares its address with several other
law firms and an café on the ground floor, due to this it became very
hard for us to tell where the court is.
There are no security checkpoints, out of 12 floors, the Land and
Environment Court occupies 6 floors it is as if it is just another office
building. The lobby is located on the 4th floor, with 2 floors of court
below it and another 3 above the lobby, the lobby’s design is small
unwelcoming and institutional, it does not feel like a lobby for a court
at all, as if this is just the reception for an office. There are no real
waiting space, anywhere you stand would be in the way of someone
trying to do stuff.
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After meeting up with guide, we set out to 2 floor above us, cramming
in to the small lift just 4 meters away from the reception desk. Then
we arrived in front of one of the court rooms.
What separates the courtroom and the lift is just the corridor (1.5
meters wide), the waiting area are just simply 4 seats for the 2
courtrooms on each level and 2 small interview room to serve each
courtroom.
The courtroom are fairly small compared to the Trials Court and the
Local Courtrooms. The courtroom only has 2 rows of seats on each
side, with the total seating capacity of about 15 to 20 for different
court variations. The court room is about 12 meters in width and about
10 meters in depth with 2.3 meter ceilings. Basically it is the size of an
executive officer’s room. There aren’t any docks or jury seating within
the court room, just like the local courts, just a simple table for the
solicitors, a place for the scribe and a table for the judge and witness.
The Judge entered a short while later from the door located at the
back of the room, and just like the other court proceeding, everyone
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stood and bowed. The solicitors are robed, but not wigged. The case is
a criminal case regarding the violation of council rules, apparently
there is a builder who removed a tree that was not supposed to be
removed based on council laws, however, the hearing only went for
about 10 minutes as there are a request for certain documents to be
presented that was not prepared, so a break was called. We took this
opportunity to join other court cases.
The one that I joined was on a Cole mining project and how the noise
and dust affect the nearby residents. A commissioner is in charge of
the hearing, therefore he is not robed and wore a suit. Due to the
amount of information and documentation involved, the solicitors
have a trolley filled to the brim with documents and folders behind
their seats. A portable projector was used to present evidence for he
court case, projecting from the computer screen to a white wall on the
side. This shows that there is a need for an integration of court rooms
with advance media technology to present evidence more effectively,
as the current hearing is compromising for this with crude methods.
53

After listening to different hearings for a while, a Q&A session was
held, from the questions, we asked we were revealed that there are
actually not enough courtrooms for the Judges and commissioners, as
there are in total 9 Judge and commissioners but only 6 court rooms
with the top one not being used at the moment due to building
renovations. There are also not enough archive space, as they are
required to keep 3 years worth of documents in paper, and their
shelves can only accommodate 2 years worth, each year they have to
box documents from 2 years ago to make way for the current year
after cataloguing everything. The office space is insufficient and lacking
in natural light and ventilation, creating a poor office environment.
Aside from 2 lifts with a capacity of 14 people each, the other only
vertical circulation was the fire escape stairs. The courtrooms also
need to be bigger, as there were some hearings when it involved
development dispute between current home owners and the
developers, thus, up to 50 or more people came to the hearings,
overcrowding the hallways.
54

In conclusion, the current Land and Environment Court does not fit the
current demands of the patrons and society needs, there are not
enough courts for cased and for the Judges and commissioners, the
office and archive space is not sufficient as well, not to mention the
courtrooms are also quite small and outdated to fit certain type of
needs. There is a need to upgrade the current situation and give the
Land And Environment Court a better establishment.
55

Law Court of NSW, St James
The visit to the Law Court happened right after the visit the Land and
environment court as these two court houses are on the same block.
The Law Courts of NSW take up the whole building in St James, this is
where the Supreme Court of NSW was relocated from the old King’s
Street Court house. The building seem to be recently refurbished,
integrating the latest media technology and furnishing styles.
The lobby is encased within a series of glass curtain walls, it is bright
and inviting, the security of the court is standard airport like, just like
any other courthouse that hears criminal cases. The signage was clear
and helpful, however, there are no indications on the lift to tell which
lift is express and which isn’t, so one could waste time looking for the
right lift to take to certain court rooms.
57

There are 6 lifts in total, with 3 of them being express lifts. From the
lifts to the first few levels there are several administration office and
registry, it is apparent that many cases are being dealt with each day as
not only the registry had to be managed with a ticker roll calling
system, the waiting area for the registry is flooded with people.
The waiting area for the court room floors are well furnish with carpet
and timber, the lighting is ambient, creating an ambient environment
for the waiting area. The corridor is about 3 meters wide it is spacious
and generous to a point that it is lavish. The meeting / interview rooms
and other services such as bathrooms, electrical and digital panels are
all integrated into the wall, creating s flushed and consistent wall
finish, any change in the wall would be the entrance to the court room
which was the only doorway that is sunken from the wall, creating a
focal point, directing people into it.
58

The court rooms here are well lit and well furnished, unfortunately
many of the court cases are closed hearings, so we don’t dare to enter
them so we did not experience any of the hearings that day.
The top level was where the supreme court was at. The supreme court
had at least 80 seats, a dock and seats for Jury. There is a strip of
window that allows the people to view into the court from the hallway,
this could be a way to increase the amount of audience that can attend
certain hearings. In a way the supreme court seem to take an exclusive
stand in the court setting, as the supreme court and its supporting
services take up most of the top floor, and it is the only court on the
floor.
59

Coroners Court
The coroner’s court is located near the University of Sydney on
Parramatta Road. There is a medical and health research centre
adjacent to the Coroner’s Court that serves a part of the forensics
facilities. the only parts of the Coroner’s Court that are accessible to
the public was the hallway after the foyer, 2 court room and 2
meeting rooms.
When I was waiting for the court to begin, a few people who seem to
be the relatives of the deceased ones were sitting on the dark
hallway/waiting area that is only about 2 meters wide with chairs on
both sides, comforting each other. The dark and somewhat damp
environment does not help with their grieving at all, the environment
is just cold harsh and insensitive, it is as if the building was something
else before they fit it out to be a coroner’s court so some space are
just simply rooms or a space without any architectural elements to
support the service.
61

62
Fire escape plan for the Coroner’s Court

The courtroom is rather with a dimension of about 15 by 20 meters
with the judge’s table raised, with a dock and seats for the Jury panel,
however the hearing today was an inquisition, they are questioning a
witness therefore there are no jury or defendants in the dock. The
Coroner is robed but not wigged, it is the same as the solicitors. There
are a lot of folders (up to 200 of them) stacked on the side of the court
in a crude manner, in the process of the hearing, those folders were
often being used as well, it shows that not only that better storage
facilities within the court (mobile or integrated) are required, but it
also shows that the inquisition can be held continuously over a long
period of days occupying the same court.
63

The whole hearing of 2 hours before a break was ordered, only
involved 2 witnesses. The witnesses recounts many issues in a very
detailed manner, urged and reminded by the solicitor and the coroner
to describe the incident as detailed as possible in every aspect to the
point where written scribe proved to be insufficient and recording was
prioritized (the mic was carefully adjusted and positioned before the
witnesses every time the witnesses change) it suggest that there is a
strong need for good acoustic design.
64

Precedent
Studies
PRECEDENT 1: SKY VILLAGE IN RØDOVRE / MVRDV
PRECEDENT 2: IT BUILDING PROPOSAL IN NEW DELHI
NICOLAS LAISNÉ
PRECEDENT 3: PALAIS DE JUSTICE DE PONTOISE /HENRI
CIRIANI ARCHITECT
PRECEDENT 4: HEARST TOWER / FOSTER AND PARTNERS
65

Sky Village in Rødovre /
MVRDV
A traditional courthouse as seen in ancient Rome or any other
civilization have always been a low level building, depending on the
scale of the court it may either be a group of buildings or single
monolithic building that sprawls across a large site with a large
number of rooms .
This precedent is chosen due to its programmatic logic that took a
monolithic single bock cube of programs broke it down to create a
tower typology with mixed-used programs within a form that can be
customized to meet a wide range of urban requirements.
The form of the building at the same time creates an urban courtyard
form that increases the social interaction and promotes sustainability.
67

IT Building Proposal in New
Delhi
Nicolas Laisné
Nicholas Laisné’s building proposed a type of urban courtyard in a
form of a mixed use commercial building that not only relies on
passive environmental systems to condition the building, it also
increases social interaction between the tenants form different
sectors of the building.
69

PALAIS DE JUSTICE DE
PONTOISE /HENRI CIRIANI
ARCHITECT
The elements within this building that intrigues are the ceremonial
main entrance and the light design of the court room.
The courthouse is entered from a grand flight of stairs after the
visitors pass through an overhanging threshold that defines the
boundary of the court, giving them a sense of place.
Followed by that is the natural lit lobby,, using a range of bright
colored panels to decorate its walls not only the lobby is light and
inviting it does not aim to provoke a sense of distant and fear to the
visitors. The floor however is highly reflective, it is as if one could see
their own soul while walking across the lobby, this design calls for
behavior and self control amongst the visitors.
The courtrooms are bright and spacious in a sensory side. It is well lit
with natural light pouring from the high level windows situated on the
top part of the walls within the court.
73

Precedent 2: Hearst Tower /
Foster and Partners
At first the reason for taking Hearst tower as a precedent is for its
structural Dia-grid system. However, it became more apparent that
the way the building deal with the heritage item on the ground floor
level is more relevant to the Justice + Agency Project.
The building sits on top of a heritage building that has a heritage
streetscape value. The building deals with it by taking away its floors
and turning it into a large open space, and atrium.
This creates an amazing waiting space on the podium level as an
entrance for the building that is flooded with healthy natural light.
This not only creates a space that is good for social interaction
between the staffs, it also makes gives the company that occupies the
building a much more prestigious feel .
75

78
Vehicular circulation Secluded room for bodies
Placing the core

79
Working out the core
The most important element of in the structural
system of a high rise building would be the core of
the building as it not only determines the position of
all the vertical services, it is also the main structural
element that runs through the building.
In deciding the core, the major problem that had to
be dealt with would be the basement parking lot
circulation especially when there is a sensitive
program where bodies needs to be transported in a
separate circulation, secluded from the rest of the
circulation.
The 3 diagrams from the right shows how the core is
conceived in an anti clockwise motion

81
Porous Design
A design that is porous as shown on the left not only
allows view penetration from a multitude of levels, it
also allows natural sunlight to penetrate the building,
creating a healthier and livelier environment.
It also increase the sense of transparency of the
building, allowing more social interaction between the
patrons

83
Circulation Types
In this diagram I have identified several Circulation
types that would penetrate the building from a
variety of ways
1. Patrons From carpark to Lobby to Office
2. Services/ Bodies from carpark to Lobby throughout
the Building to the Forensics Lab and Mortuary
3. Public to the Museum then to court visits
Integrating the Justice and Police
Museum
• Enhanced accessibility
• Creating a second entrance to replace the
uninviting entrance from Philip Street
• Extending and Enlarging exhibition space

85
Courtyard space
Creating courtyard spaces with the setbacks by
sinking in the floor plate
Program Stacking
the diagram shows how the programs within the
building are stacked in response to the setback

87
Enhanced Facade
This type of facade not only allow for more courtyard space, it also
allow for more courtyard space and at the same time, it breaks the
wind
Urban Courtyard
Courtyard space perforates building form allowing cross circulation,
cross ventilation and natural light.

89
Overall Massing
Program Blocks
Office
Therapeutic
Courtrooms
Forensics
Museum
Core

91
Forensics Lab
The forensics labs and mortuary are placed on the top of the
building, this is mainly to give the forensic pathologists the best
view of all, as after a long day in the forensics labs doing
examinations, it would be good for the forensics pathologists to
be rewarded with a good view of the city that they are working
hard to protect.
Courtrooms
the courtrooms are inspired by the courtrooms in PALAIS DE
JUSTICE DE PONTOISE and the courtrooms in CAMPUS Justicia.
These in contrary to most of the courtrooms in Sydney that I
have seen which usually lack in natural lighting, the courtrooms
in the precedents are rich with good quality natural light.

93
Voids
These voids within the building are inspired by IT building in Delhi
by Nicolas Laisné.
The voids within the building not only created a half continuous
light well to provide natural light and fresh air and ventilation to the
interior of the building, it also creates multiple internal urban
courtyard spaces that provide social interaction.
Administrative offices
The administrative offices are located parallel to the courtroom
levels. it sits on top of the public open space within the old
health building facade. An urban courtyard was planned to
provide a place for the people working in the office to rest and
have lunch.
IT Building Proposal in New Delhi urban courtyard space as precedent

95
Therapeutic Facilities
The therapeutic facilities are situated on close to the courtroom
and bottom floors not only to provide counselling services to
the family members of the deceased. But to also to provide
counselling services to some of the forensics pathologists that
had just started not too long ago that haven't got used to their
positions yet.
Building Core
The building has 2 main cores. One core would have lifts and stairs
serving areas that the public can freely gain access to, which is the
courtrooms and to the offices.
The other core would be servicing the forensics labs and mortuary,
providing an express service from the car park and lobby level to
the forensics section of the building. This is to mainly separate the
public accessible and non-accessible functions.
Inspired by the Structural system of the Sky village in Rødovre, the
core became the main structural element for the forensics lab.

96
Police and Justice Museum Extension
An extension was planned to provide entrance from Macquarie
Street to the Police and Justice Museum.
This can not only allow more exhibits to be shown, it also
connects the building to the cultural ribbon and provide a more
accessible entry for the disabled.

Image Credits
Page 2. Nicholas Ho, rendering with Sketchup
Page 17. Hengameh Seradji
Page 18. LEP Map Figure 5.15 Special Character Area G Setbacks
Page 30. https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/71912160
Page 36. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/north-shore/robert-
douglas-pentecost-59-claims-gambling-addiction-led-to-ripping-off-seniors-
on-the-north-shore/story-fngr8h9d-1226649181229
Page 41, 43. Nicholas Ho, Photo taken at Parramatta Local Court
Page 46. http://www.genkin.org/cgi-
bin/photo.pl/australia/sydney/parramatta/au-sydney-parramatta-0006
Page 56. Nicholas Ho, Photo taken at St James Law Courts
Page 60. http://year12-legalstudies.wikispaces.com/The+Court+Structure
Page 62. Ethan Kang, Photo taken at Coroners Court
Page 66,68. Archdaily,http://www.archdaily.com/8649/sky-village-in-
rodovre-mvrdv/
Page 69-71. Archdaily,http://www.archdaily.com/115739/it-building-
proposal-in-new-delhi-nicolas-laisne/
Page 72. Powerpoint Slide, HENRI CIRIANI ARCHITECT, JUSTICE
ENVIRONMENTS, LAW COURTS AND ARCHITECTURE, PALAIS DE JUSTICE DE
PONTOISE, A CASE STUDY, April 2006
Page 74,76. Archdaily, http://www.archdaily.com/204701/flashback-hearst-
tower-foster-and-partners/
Page 78-94. Nicholas Ho, rendering with Sketchup
97

Agency + City Justice Precinct Design

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