Phoenix, Arizona
The courthouse is a singular civic building type that represents the democratic values of the United States Constitution. Despite today’s dematerialized etymology, it is still important to provide a fitting setting for the courthouse as a public institution, and, at the same time, to establish appropriate spatial relationships between the judiciary, the jury, and the public.
Located in downtown Phoenix, this building has been designed as a monumental six-story steel and glass atrium, backed by an L-shaped block faced in masonry. It houses nineteen district courts, four magistrates courts and a wide range of support facilities, including judges’ chambers, a library, a press room, and a space for child care. A large cafeteria, on the second floor at the western end of the atrium, overlooks a narrow garden enclosed by a wall.
The 350-foot by 150-foot, glazed atrium is treated as an internal civic space, which houses the cylindrical glazed form of the special proceedings court, itself a cylindrical room finished in wood veneer. Conceived as a ceremonial space, the courtroom is capped by a shallow, inverted dome of translucent glass, designed by the American glass artist/fabricator James Carpenter.
This monumental drum, with its attendant atrium. is flanked on the south by six floors of offices and courtrooms with an open gallery overlooking the internal civic space. Light plays a critical role in the articulation of this volume, which is naturally lit from above and the sides during the day and emits a radiant glow of artificial light at night.
Passively cooled by natural convection, the atrium is an efficient space that is comfortable for public gatherings. The technology of adiabatic cooling – through evaporation rather than heat exchange – is used to maintain a lower air temperature without a significant expenditure of energy.
前所未有的透明度和中央公民空间创造了民主价值观的纪念碑。
这座建筑位于凤凰城的中心地带，旨在为法院作为公共机构提供一个合适的环境，同时在司法机构、陪审团和公众之间建立适当的空间关系。该结构设计为一个巨大的六层钢和玻璃中庭，由面向砖石的 L 形块支撑。它设有 19 个地区法院、4 个治安法院和范围广泛的支持设施，从图书馆和新闻发布室到儿童保育设施。
该项目的核心是 350 英尺 x 150 英尺的玻璃中庭，它被视为一个内部公民空间。在中庭内，一个圆柱形房间，饰有木饰面，设有特别诉讼法庭，该法庭被设想为一个仪式空间，并由美国玻璃艺术家詹姆斯卡彭特设计的浅而倒置的半透明玻璃圆顶覆盖。这座巨大的中庭南侧是六层楼的办公室和法庭，还有一个开放的画廊，可以俯瞰内部的公民空间。光线在这个体积的表达中起着至关重要的作用，它在白天从上方和侧面自然地被照亮，在晚上发出人造光的光芒。
该建筑的中庭通过自然对流被动冷却，使其成为一个极其舒适的空间，非常适合公共聚会。绝热冷却技术的部署——通过蒸发而不是热交换来工作——用于保持较低的空气温度而无需大量能源消耗，即使在具有挑战性的沙漠气候中也能使设计格外高效。