Fredericton Justice Building, Montgomery Sisam Architects New Brunswick, Canadian architecture images

Fredericton Justice Building in New Brunswick

24 December 2021

Design: Montgomery Sisam Architects with Goguen Architecture

Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Fredericton Justice Building

Exterior of the Fredericton Justice Building:

The new Fredericton Justice Building demonstrates how civic buildings can be formal and functional – yet contemporary and high design – thanks to carefully considered architectural details.

Fredericton Justice Building, New Brunswick, Canada

Designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects (design architect) in collaboration with Goguen Architecture (Prime Consultant), the soon to be Fredericton, New Brunswick-located courthouse’s design strikes a unique balance between monumentality and lightness, while pairing modern proportions with a classic civic aesthetic:

The new courthouse was designed with a natural colour palette which combines brick, stone, glass, copper and concrete to create a durable, high-performance exterior envelope that honours local traditions and integrates with its surroundings. It is also a suitably dignified yet contemporary expression of the gravity of national democracy.

The traditional-looking exterior opens up into an intricate yet intelligent interior floor plan that is surprisingly light and airy, thanks to the application of wood finishes and the white architectural block which bring texture and softness. The interior has been purposely designed to evoke a sense of calm within a particularly intense environment.
Despite the requirement for opaque courtrooms, access to daylight becomes an organizing principle of the design. Natural light pierces through floor-to-ceiling windows and apertures, evoking a dramatic interplay between solid and void.
This interplay between solid and void continues in the textural quality of the interior space, where soft curves juxtapose with hard sculptural edges, creating a rhythmic articulation.

“For the Fredericton Justice Building, it was really important to us to design a timeless civic building that captured the character of the city’s urban fabric, yet allow the design to be a bit more abstract and sculptural than traditional courthouses. From the exterior, the building looks somewhat utilitarian and monumental. But the interior juxtaposes that with its light and airy qualities.

Interior lobby view:

Together, the simple, elegant mass drawn from local building traditions, combined with its locally sourced material palette, technically sophisticated and tacitly rich elevations, and physical scale and quality of light, ensure the new Fredericton Justice Building is true to its city and civic identity – and a place intended to endure for generations to come.”
– Daniel Ling, Principal Architect, Montgomery Sisam Architects

Interior courtroom:

Interesting facts about the Fredericton Justice Building:

The new Fredericton Justice Building is the first purpose-built project of its kind in the city since 1880. This courthouse will take its place (in 2024) alongside many important civic buildings that form part of an institutional precinct in the city centre.

The relatively modest height (6-storey) is in fact the tallest building in downtown Fredericton, however the architects carefully considered the subtle application of material, and an elegant form, meant to integrate into the urban fabric.
The building will be almost 120,000 sq ft including its mechanical penthouse.

Montgomery Sisam as Design Architect in collaboration with courthouse specialist Julian Jaffary, and local Fredericton firm Goguen Architecture.

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Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

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