Amsterdam, The Netherlands
KAAN Architecten and landscape architect Simona Serafino have replaced the former, outdated Amsterdam Courthouse with a stunning new building marked by energy efficiency and spatial flexibility that can be sustained well into the future.
The Amsterdam Courthouse was built to replace the outdated judicial complex in the up-and-coming Zuidas district in south Amsterdam.
With 50 courtrooms and a surface of almost 50,000 square meters, the building is the biggest courthouse in the Netherlands.
Its exemplary efficiency materializes in a stately yet open functional structure.
The Amsterdam Courthouse has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
In its design, the Courthouse adheres to the principle that the judicial process is a public matter.
Exuding approachable authority, the 50-meter-high building is a stately yet inviting institution for public discourse.
A vast square in front of the building offers an unobstructed view of the lower floor dedicated to the public area through large windows.
Passing an elegant canopy on the main square, visitors are welcomed into the ground floor central foyer, equipped with reception desks and a cafeteria.
Rising upward, the courtrooms unfold, surrounded by spacious foyers where visitors come and go and lawyers consult with clients and reporters.
The highest floors are connected through a grand circular staircase, giving way to offices and judges’ chambers set around green indoor and outdoor courtyards.
Meanwhile, the defendants’ detention cell area is located under the building with separate pick-up and drop-off ramps.
The Courthouse is horizontally divided into three greater sections to separate its functions and allow for efficient circulation of employees, judges, and visitors within its structure.
The courthouse’s most open and public areas feature large openings on the lower floors, directly connected to the public square, which become progressively smaller and more tailored from collective to individual scale as the nature of work becomes more confidential and private.
As the public makes its way up from the entrance square, the lawyers and judges trickle down from their chambers at the building’s crown.
The relationship with the city is constant; large windows offer multiple views towards the surroundings, and the patios are flooding with greenery and light the courthouse’s inner structure.
The Amsterdam Courthouse is an intrinsically sustainable building built through a collaborative process between designers, engineers, contractors, and suppliers.
Energy efficiency is paired with embedded robustness, and future-proof solutions meet visitor and employee well-being requests.
Future transformations are anticipated by achieving flexibility in the structure, technical installations, building physics, and spatial organization.
All the public areas, such as the square, parts of the façade, and the entrance hall are clad in natural stone.
This choice comes not only from the material’s aesthetic qualities but also for its durability and resiliency of its surface for easy long-term maintenance.
The dark linear façade further emphasizes the dignified look of the building.
High steel columns constitute the main load-bearing structure, while progressively smaller openings with fine profiles and hidden window frames create the three-part horizontal division.
The Courthouse also features specifically commissioned original artwork – most noticeably the entrance square sculpture by Nicole Eisenman and Jesse Wine as well as Femmy Otten’s courtroom artwork.
Project: Amsterdam Courthouse
Architects: KAAN Architecten
Structural Engineer: ABT Velp
Management: DVP
General Contractor: Heijmans
Maintenance & Operation: Facilicom
Landscape Architects: Simona Serafino Landscape Architect
Geotechnical Engineer: ABT Velp
Facades Consultants: TGM
Client: Rijksvastgoedbedrijf (Central Government Real Estate Agency)
Investor: Macquarie Capital
Photographers: Fernando Guerra FG+SG