A complete analysis of the project and construction of the new City of Justice in Barcelona.
Currently, the various justice departments of Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat are scattered in 17 buildings distributed between the two cities, with functional frustrations for both users and employees. A new joint city of Justice will improve efficiency and allow the workspaces to adapt and absorb the constant transformation of the judicial body, while allowing additional space for future growth. This monograph is dedicated to the winning project by b720 architects and David Chipperfield Architects, describing all the details from the design process through the construction phase. The most significant proposal breaks the massive requirements of the program (241,519.92 m2) into a series of separate but interrelated buildings in a public square, engendering a spatial composition that attempts to break the rigid and monolithic image of justice. This proposal also attempts to provide a balance in the relationships between the different work areas, public areas and landscape. The book is organized in four different sections. The first chapter is an interview between David Chipperfield and Fermín Vázquez; The second gives an overview of the project with visual material and drawings; Part 3 talks about the execution of the building by b720 architects, and there is a final technical analysis about the pigmented concrete by Lanxess, the chemical company that collaborated in the project.