[ projects ]

The Palace of Justice in Antwerp

Antwerp, Belgium

March 2006 saw the official inauguration of the new Palace of Justice, a secular cathedral of metal, glass and wood measuring 78,000 m2, created by architect Richard Rogers

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 lighting system for the new Palace of Justice includes Nuvola fixtures, made by iGuzzini, which blend perfectly into the architectural context of the building.