Dignity in red – the Justice Center in Bochum

Figure: Hascher Jehle Architekten

Northwestern façade of the red-colored courtroom wing of the Justice Center. The main entrance is also located here

Figure: Hascher Jehle Architekten

Figure: o. M.

Map of the site [on a scale of 1:5,000]

Figure: o. M.

Figure: Robert Mehl

Cross section of the courtroom wing and floor plan of the ground floor of the Justice Center [on a scale of 1:1,000]

Figure: Robert Mehl

Figure: Hascher Jehle Architektur

A green courtyard adjoins to the east of the courtroom wing; to the sides, the administration wings with an exposed façade of concrete ashlar

Figure: Hascher Jehle Architektur

Figure: o. M.

The northeastern corner of the courtroom wing. The single-storied connecting building leads to the offices

Figure: o. M.

The article is a preview of the Beton Bauteile 2018 yearbook (ISBN 978-3-7625-3679-6), which will be available at www.profil-buchhandlung.de and local German bookstores from 1 December 2017.

Bochum’s new Justice Center was built on an inner-city brownfield site not far from the main railway station. The building is characterized by a russet-colored courtroom wing which incorporates the main entrance and is followed by a beige-colored administrative complex housing 750 offices. Precast concrete elements have been used on the façades of both buildings.

Contrary to what one might think, the site located close to the city center at Bochum’s eastern ring road between the former, Wilhelminian-style Gymnasium building, a brewery and the former goods station has been a kind of brownfield land since the end of World War II. At the beginning of the new millennium, the “Gymnasium am Ostring” was in such dire need of renovation that the city opted in favor of a new building in a new location.

Bochum’s existing local and regional court had, until now, resided in a building which dated from the 1970s and was contaminated with harmful substances; the...