Arezzo Law Court by Manfredi Nicoletti

> project : Arezzo Law Court
> localization : Arezzo, Italy
> client : Comune di Arezzo
> architect : Manfredi Nicoletti
> collaborators : L. Campagna, A.
 Senesi, P. Leone, D. De Santis

> date : 2001 > 2007
> materials : Black granite, aluminium, stainless steel, glass, maple
> awards : IAA International Academy of Architecture: Best
Building 2002


Arezzo Law Court > Manfredi Nicoletti :
(If you should ever be unfortunate enough to land up in the dock, then at least if you happen to be
in Tuscany’s quaintly beautiful city of Arezzo at the time, you’ll be able to drink in the stunning
surroundings of its organically-shaped new Law Court designed by Manfredi Nicoletti, whose passion
for nature is the driving force behind his sustainable bioclimatic solutions inspired by natural forms.)


In a medieval town - better known for its narrow winding streets and 16th century monuments than for cutting-edge architecture – Nicoletti’s challenge was to create an avant-garde building which, by complementing its historic and neoclassical neighbours, would act as a metaphorical bridge linking  ancient and modern rather than separating them.

AWARD-WINNING RESPONSE.
Summarily rising above the challenge, the Arezzo Law Court adjoins a lush and leafy centuries old park and is located close to the 400-year-old Medici Fortress.
With the New Wing evocatively symbolising and reflecting its environment with architectural eloquence, it comes as no surprise that Nicoletti’s design won the 2002 edition of the coveted International Academy of Architecture (IAA) award for best building.
Professing to see architecture as a metaphor for nature, Nicoletti explains: “This is the key to my own personal quest. Not in the stereotyped repetition of clichéd forms, but in the reiteration of these primordial experiences through ever-changing forms suggested directly by their own context.”


AT ONE WITH NATURE.
A sinuously undulating diaphanous screen - consisting of hundreds of strips of stainless steel giving the impression of twisting and curving as if caught in an eddy - the outer façade is perhaps the Law Court’s
most dramatic feature. The luminous shadow cast by the gleaming silver bioclimatic ‘foliage’ not only seems to be an extension of the park itself, but while protecting the interior spaces also empathises with Arezzo’s

neoclassical heritage rather than clashing with it.
True to his love of nature, Nicoletti’s sublime curvilinear structure fashioned from geometrically warped
rectilinear elements takes its inspiration from leaves and other living forms.
The building’s double skin meanwhile crucially allows natural ventilation to permeate the interior keeping it cool and shading it from Tuscany’s hot summer sun.

COUNTERPOINT.
The inner façade of the south side - almost exclusively glass
– is in sharp contrast to the curved north side of Arezzo’s singular Nuovo Palazzo di Giustizia which, totally devoid of windows, is distinctively clad in black granite slabs flamed to take on an elegant matt charcoal-grey hue.
Linked to a large neoclassical building which was once a hospital and is to be restored and used for archives and offices, the new structure houses the main courtrooms and Hall of Justice headquarters.


MATERIAL ADVANTAGE.
Enclosed within its green-toned glazed envelope, the signature three-storey entrance hall is bathed in natural light streaming in through the glass ceiling, and dominated by an elevator whose external casing - like the floor - is of polished black granite.
Horizontally perforated aluminium acoustic panels separated by a narrow fascia of maple line the walls, while an imposing stainless steel walkway and staircase draw the eye upwards.
Nature abhors a straight line, but a leaning cone on an elliptical base, well that’s another matter entirely.