Jap Sam Books

SOURCE 01

The Shape of Justice

Louise Schouwenberg [ed.]

Source 01 The Shape of Justice presents challenging views on the role of design in a court of Justice. On request of the RGD (Rijksgebouwendienst - the Government Buildings Agency) the students of the IM Masters department of the DAE (Design Academy Eindhoven) researched morality and the symbols of justice in today's world. The context of their research was the new Court of Justice-building in Amsterdam, which at the time of the research existed merely on paper and will be built in the near future.

After an elaborate research phase the students developed design ideas for the new building, both inside and outside. Some of ther proposals deals with communicating universal symbols on the facades of the building, on the walls of the corridors, the pavement, the ceilings, in the shape of the furniture and lighting, the restaurant and the public space surrounding of the Court of Justice. Some proposals addressed the accused, some addressed the visitors and some focused mainly on the people working in the building. Some students searched for metaphors to express the idea of morality and some chose to communicate the sometimes conflicting interests involved in a judicial system. Others elaborated on security or dealt with a lighter subject by comparing the judicial system with a game, people play.

The end results were shown in drawings, photographs and models. Text contributions by Gijs Bakker, Louise Schouwenberg and Jago van den Bergen on the theme and photographs of the proposals are included in this first publication of Source, a series of publications by the IM Masters department of the DAE (Design Academy Eindhoven).