Criminal Courts

The law court designed by Taller de Arquitectura in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, features an oval wall, allowing that inside of it there are placed a succession of open gardens.

The design in Michoacán de Ocampo State came from the need to create a new infrastructure for its criminal court trials. The first step was to understand them as a system and grouping the program according the different uses. The trial spaces had to accomplish, in parallel, with a list of elements such as: functionality, the new operation, the pedestrian flows and the illumination, acoustics and thermal quality; all this for the new halls. But also it was necessary to express transparency, equality, democracy, justice and dignity. By last, a sense of belonging to the context, to a culture and belonging to a society of which they are part of.

Since jail architecture has been designed to be observed, the new design must be an exposed system, opened to democracy, to the citizenship, with lighted paths, shadows, wind and silence. The approach of the project was to create open spaces inside the building, whence the oval wall, that contains a circulation which works as a great wall, as well it allows that inside of it, there are placed a succession of gardens. The wall, built with volcanic stone obtained from the site, is the oval wall with a five to eight meters height.

The project was developed in just one level; over a two ramp land which is divided by four platforms that contain five pavilions. The building counts with two courtrooms, such as administrative offices and needed services. There are two typologies of buildings: offices and services pavilion with an inclined ceiling, metal columns and beams and a concrete slab. The courtrooms have a metal structure formed by columns, with exposed armour and light foam.