波尔多法院

1992年，RSHP在国际竞赛脱颖而出，为知名古城波尔多设计新法院。设计旨在通过透明和开放的视觉感，为法国司法系统建立正向亲民的看法。任务书的要求很复杂，需要将民众和司法系统的空间完全区隔开。设计将建筑物拆解成基本组成部分，营造出空间透明感，使人产生直观方向感，使得向来不可一世的的机构更显平易近人。

设计的关键要素包括公共空间的创造和与现有城市景观的整合。公众通过侧面的一排楼梯进入大楼内，通向大楼正中央的“等候厅”，这里是律师、客户、公众三种人群的交汇处。

七座个被雪松包裹的法庭吊舱底層架空在石灰石基座上方，安稳地收纳在波浪铜屋顶下的巨大玻璃幕内。通过横跨中庭的桥梁可到达行政办公室 – 清晰的建筑平面度确保公众和法官得以维持互不相干扰的独立保安通道穿越中庭。使用不规则形状和天然材料，建筑成功地融入其所在周围的敏感环境，包括波尔多中世纪城墙的其中一段。

设计也特别着重在有效的被动环控系统。吊舱有大屋顶遮蔽，西立面的手动遮阳窗降低西晒的室内温度。烧瓶状的体型允许阳光撒入法庭里面，并利用高度实现分层控温。

包裹在房间周围的玻璃箱，其遮阳和通风系统整合在屋顶内，形成一座会呼吸的容器。此外，裙楼和办公室使用混凝土建成—非常有效的被动热控制系统。

In response to the site constraints and mindful of the historical buildings nearby, the building is placed hard up against the Cours d’Albert, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, while the remainder of the site along the medieval ramparts is left open as public landscaped space with views towards the cathedral and central Bordeaux.

The administrative areas, including judge’s and lawyer’s chambers, offices for magistrates and support staff are contained within a five-storey rectilinear block along the street frontage. This form with its enclosing roof creates a legible container of parts, and a volume into which the public spaces are placed and articulated.

As a reaction to the ‘corridors of power’, the framed volume also contains and expresses the various segregated circulation routes. The Salle des Pas Perdus is aligned and connected to the existing building, the legibility of the vertical circulation system is fundamental to the organisation of the building and a direct expression of the judicial process. At third-floor level, an elevated walkway provides access for defendants and plaintiffs.

Judges have a separate and secure circulation system via bridges across the void, while members of the public enter via a raised walkway along the courtyard.

Public space flows around the ‘vessels’ containing the courtrooms which sit on a plinth of two levels of offices. All of the architectural elements are contained within a great steel frame with a 76 metre long glazed wall, exposing the courts to view from the landscaped courtyard. The entire composition is topped by an undulating, copper-clad roof that forms a loggia over the stairway between the external courtyard and the administration wing.

In contrast to the open, glazed Salle des Pas Perdus and the light-weight steel-framed roof, the courts themselves are contained spaces, lit naturally from the top. Tapered in section and rounded in plan, the forms of the courtrooms echo the mass of the adjoining medieval towers as well as recalling Kentish oast-houses and traditional boat-building. Supported on pilotis, they stand behind a near invisible glass curtain wall, their conical profile penetrating the roof above to facilitate natural ventilation.

The form of the building reflects the environmental research that informed the whole design process.

The design team were committed to embracing a passive energy strategy, without conventional air-conditioning, which would none-the-less provide comfortable working spaces and low running costs. The orientation of the building on the site shields the vulnerable glazed spaces from the hot summer sun, while maximising natural day light. At the same time, the placement of the office wing along the Cours d Albert filters noise and pollution from the busy road.

The atrium acts as a buffer to the noise and poor air quality of the surrounding urban environment. This stable reservoir of clean air is supplied via a specially designed waterfall that cools and humidifies the air. The pool acts as a heat-sink and air passes through a heat-exchanger, extracting air from the offices. The cycle is completed as supply air from the atrium is drawn into the offices through hollow ribs in the concrete slab, making maximum use of the thermal mass of the concrete to provide cooling and heating, depending on the season.

On the facades, opening windows and manually operated aluminium louvres provide shade and limit the ingress of unwanted solar gain to the office spaces.

The courts themselves are ventilated by the stack effect of warm air rising and exiting at roof level, a process that is assisted by the conical forms, with fresh air introduced mechanically at very low velocity at floor level. In addition, the textured timber surfaces of the concave-walled interiors provide speech-perfect acoustical conditions.

The construction of the law courts utilised twentieth century building and materials technology as well as the knowledge and skills of artisan builders. In order to shape the laminated beam structure, the geometry of the courts was reduced to a simple mathematical equation.

CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings of the structural elements were sized digitally on a computer-controlled cutting machine to produce the complex curves and acoustic perforations of the internal maple-veneered panels.

In contrast, the exterior of the courts, clad in western red cedar strips, were positioned and fixed on site by artisan carpenters to produce the elegant and arresting finished structures.