Judicial Centre in Debrecen by Koller & Co. Design Ltd.

Photographer: Tamás Bujnovszky

The task was the placement and the planning of the High Court of Justice, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and the Town Court in the heart of Debrecen, the civic city with 1000-year history. The planning was preceded by a national tender which fit the build-in of the entire Révész-square block to its new program. From several points it is an especially ungrateful task to set up a new building on the above mentioned fractured area, especially as the first element of a large-scale reconstructing. The most conspicuous characteristic of the building is its blackness, the sides of the inclusive prism look like as if they have been graved with a blade, the building does not exit its bordering flats staying inside its own limits. The appropriate knowledge of one’s limits and compliance with them, a behaviour without trespass as the predominant guiding principle suits to the formation of a judicial centre. The brick surfaces are invigorated by the delicate play of light and the shadow effects of the rhythmically recurring hatchways of the upper lantern-lights. This living texture is randomly cut up by the inserted shorter longer red limestone strips. The light glints the mat mass of the brick on the polished stone and looking at it foreshorten, it gives a quite dynamic horizontal cut to the facade.

Architects: József Koller, László Csatai jr., László Pethő, László Földes
Associate architects: Zoltán Bánfalvi, Tünde Szojka M., Szabolcs Kiss
Interior designers: László Rádóczy, Zsolt Tolnai

Structural engineers: József Maros
Mechanical engineers: Zsolt Eördögh
Electricity: Béla Hegyi

Photographer: Tamás Bujnovszky