It must be difficult, as an architect, designing a ‘justice centre’. At the back of your mind would be the fact that murderers, rapists, drug lords and – at least in Manchester, countless Vicki Pollard wannabes – are going to grace the corridors of your building, yelling and screaming and crying and cursing. It would be tempting to do what so many architects have done throughout the ages, and design a building that is intended to terrify its occupants into compliance.
DentonCorkerMarshall have taken a novel approach and come up with a design that is open and contemporary, yet still assertive. It is designed to the highest environmental standards, a claim confirmed by winning the Royal Institute of British Architects’ English Partnerships Sustainability Award late last year. The building has shades of Paul Katsieris’s Melbourne Federal Court building (check out the online tour here).
So even though sustainable, contemporary design is unlikely to keep Ms Pollard off the streets, at the very least Manchester has an bold, innovative addition to its skyline.
