OMA create design response to historic & contemporary site elements

The Palais de Justice de Lille, the new courthouse designed by Tendestream member OMA, has completed. OMA's design responds to its surroundings through the creation of a colourful multifaceted building that addresses different clues and elements from the past and the contemporary world.

The design challenge was to address the site's past, present, and future, with the courthouse set within one of military engineer Vauban's most notable former fortifications. The area is now a green landscape crossed by motorways and boulevards, characterised by opportunities for open air activity, surrounded by faint traces of the fort's geometry. 

The building is organised around three articulated volumes. A publicly accessible base accommodates the entrance, the main hall (salle des pas perdus), and the major courtrooms. A triangular central tower rising from this plinth contains the minor courtrooms, while a faceted ring of offices floats around it, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building.

The interiors are intended to make the judicial procedures accessible and visible, replacing the traditional monumentality of courthouse design with an environment that is welcoming to the public, judiciary, and staff alike. Each of the building's three components is distinguished through its own material expression and spatial character, reinforcing clarity and orientation throughout the complex.

The outdoor spaces enhance the site’s qualities, limiting the building’s impact on the environment and providing extensions and continuities necessary for the long-term preservation of the ecosystem. Green space is distributed across three levels: a public plaza at ground level, a ‘country garden’ covering the base, and a roof garden overlooking Lille.

The Palais de Justice de Lille continues OMA's longstanding relationship with the city, following the Euralille masterplan (1989) and Congrexpo/Lille Grand Palais (1994), and marks a new chapter in the city's civic and architectural development.

Lucy Nordberg
Tenderstream Head of Research

This tender was first published by Tenderstream on 24.04.2016 here

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