OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

OMA’s design for the new Palais de justice in Lille has been selected as the winner of four finalists from a competition. The new public building, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, will accommodate the high court and district court of Lille. With the design of the new courthouse, OMA returns to Lille more than twenty years after designing the masterplan for the new Euralille district (1989) and the conference and exhibition centre Congrexpo (1994).

Lille’s new courthouse will be built near Vauban’s former fortifications at the outskirts of the city. Triggered by this location, OMA has designed a colorful multifaceted building that is able to address a wide range of different elements from the city’s past and present. From the base of the building, which houses the public and the major courtrooms, a central triangular tower rises where all the minor courtrooms are concentrated. This tower is surrounded by a ring of offices floating above the base.

The interiors of each of the building’s components are conceived to make all the procedures of justice accessible, even inviting, free of the intimidation that has traditionally been the main characteristic of the architecture of justice.