Palace of Justice, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

At the beginning of December, the Palace of Justice, designed by Claus en Kaan, was completed and now serves as a replacement for the old building, which had become too small. The new building has a floor space of 34,000 sqm with enough room for 700 workplaces, 19 courtrooms and 26 holding rooms for defendants. Due to the nature of how the rooms are used, the security requirements demanding, which is why the inner rooms were divided into two zones - a public zone and a security zone to which only authorised persons are granted access. The shape of the building posed a major problem with regard to this envisaged room layout, however, this could be solved to the satisfaction of the parties.