Law Courts, Badalona

• The design proposal aims to reconcile a complex brief and the urban planning assigned to the site, which disposes to develop the law courts in a high rise building. To achieve so, the ground floor splits in two, offering direct street access to the public levels by taking advantage of the site difference in height. A wide linear staircase links the public areas and the courtrooms. The upper floors follow a conventional central-core tower structure in order to achieve maximum efficiency. On the other hand, the design works thoroughly to minimize construction costs. An industrialized 10 cm panel system is used as external envelope, substantially reducing the built area. There is also an optimization on the building weight to achieve a slenderer structure. A reduction on the building openings and a precise modulation in all the project elements facilitates the use of industrialized components. Finally, A multiservice chilled beam system, which incorporates all the services reduces the assembling process and long term maintenance costs. The resulting project reaches a 20% reduction both on construction costs and further building maintenance.