INDUBHAI PAREKH SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, RAJKOT

Design Studio: 9 |Urban Design Studio 2019 | Judicial Activity Campus

Faculties: Shishir Raval, Devang Parekh, Prakash Mandvaiya, Parag Udani, Rupesh Patel, Sweta Modi

Role of Judiciary Institute in Urban Life:

 Basic function of the law court is to institutionalize justice.

 Judicial system is spine of democratic setup people look up to it for protection of their rights.
 It has always had a special position in human society.
 Without a system to perform this role, social life, as we know it would not exist their
importance can never be overstated.
 They also perform a function of educating the society about certain values of life.
 This gives courthouses a unique position as well as relatability with public.
 It empowers democratic governance.

Site:

 Site is situated in front of the kothi compound, near hospital chowk, besides kesari hind
bridge.
 It is situated besides the edge of Aaji River on the east, railway junction on the north edge,
kothi compound on the west and kesari hind bridge on the south.
 The site has more floras in comparison to other areas of the city, which makes it more
peaceful in experience.
 The site has various functions going on in its surrounding such as public institutions like
church, school, on its southern edge along with the existing civil court near hospital chowk,
and other district courts running on the linear edge of the site.
 On the northern edge of the site the railway colony is situated, where else on the south
western side of the site all the hospitals and medical colleges on the west side.

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History of Rajkot bar Association:

 In the time of British Government there was one Rajashthanik Court sitting in the premises
now known as Kothi Compound at Rajkot having two British Judges and one Indian Judge.
 The jurisdiction of Rajashthanik Court was to decide dispute, political nature, between two
native states regarding their boundaries etc. and they had to decide dispute arising out of
individual succession matter of Ruler of native states.

Why accommodating all the judiciary activities on this site?

 All the court functions running there at present.

 Due to which lawyers, all the workers working in accordance to the court functions resides
nearby.
 Transportation facilities of the city located nearby.
 Banks, markets and other institutes are also located nearby.
 It is located at the equal distances from various part of the city.

Issues on existing court campus:

 High-rise building with no inviting notion.

 Mixed up functions.
 No confined or organized parking spaces.
 No public interactive open spaces.
 Weak climatic response.
 No critical response towards the edges of the context.
 More of isolated spaces being formed inside the campus.
 Building of the court eliminating the sense of dissociation for the public.

Programme:

 Designing a campus for centralizing all the judicial activities of the cities on one campus.
 Designing a judiciary campus or court campus which is mainly divided within two aspects
one being the formal interface and another informal interface.
 Area allocation is not only dependant on occupancy or function of space but also on the user
of the space. Hence, designing a judiciary campus having the potential of being architectural
icon and still maintain its social relevance by acting as the catalyst to promote humanitarian
ideas like social equality awareness and democratic values.
 Trying to find an architectural middle ground between the function requirements of security
and public inclusion within a court campus.
 How can explorations in design typologies and styles in judicial architecture help in creating
a more conducive environment for the court to perform its functions, along with making it
more inclusive to general masses thus help towards creating a more informed society.

Courts in action in Rajkot:

1. JMFC Court 4. Municipal court 7. Consumer forum 10.Advanced civil

court
2. Civil court 5. District and 8. Advanced district 11.Traffic court
sessions court and session court
3. Negotiable court 6. Family court 9. Labour court 12. Criminal court.

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