Chyutin Architects have won and designed the District Courthouse. It seems that the notion of transparency and information was exploited and transferred to the façade in a form reminiscent of a barcode; A term that carries a dual meaning in relation to architecture and justice.

The courthouse in Jerusalem is located on a newly designed main public square in the city center of Jerusalem. The building houses all the judiciary levels except the Supreme Court, and contains 113 courtrooms and 135 judges’ chambers. The design of the court building connects and bridges among the host of diverse design languages of the buildings around it while creating a distinctive language of its own. The court building is designed as a spatial composition in which a vertical rectangular prism, containing the judicial wing, penetrates into a horizontally laid-out prism, with a sloping upper face, housing the judiciary services and the foyer. The vertical prism is divided into two vertical slices, a broad one containing the courtrooms wing and a narrow one containing the judges’ chambers wing. The building’s design as a simple, minimalistic composition, with each prism housing distinct activities, is in the modern architectural tradition that calls for form to follow function. The logic behind this principle is not merely formal; rather, its aim is to point to functional, technical and economic efficiency. The building is a result of a winning competition.

ARCHITECT: Chyutin Architects Ltd., Givataim, Israel. CLIENT: Israeli Government. LOCATION: Jerusalem, Israel. DESIGN: Chyutin Architects Ltd in collaboration with Shmaya Zarfati. PROJECT TEAM: Bracha Chyutin, Michael Chyutin, Shmaya Zarfati, Jacques Dahan, Keren Angelman. STATUS: Design Phase. AREA: 50000 sqm. . DATE: 2010. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.