The new building for the Penal Court at the Campus of Justice in Madrid has to promote a comfortable use and clear circulations. We do not disagree with the cylindrical envelope that was imposed by the overall Master Plan. We think that the strong idea of a “field of cylinders” was a good one to express an intense institutional character of the whole.

However, instead of a concentric layout for the rooms we chose to arrange them in a series of strips, where built wings and landscaped courtyards alternate. These courtyards are the genuine halls of the building. Offices overlook them while landscape enters the building through them. Besides, they provide a complete natural ventilation and lighting for all the premises and they work as climatic regulators of the whole. By means of removable canvas roofs they cool the offices in summer and they can take advantage of the greenhouse effect in summer. Thanks to the intermediate space the courtyards create, offices can have a glass envelope, making the desired transparency of the judicial institution something more than a metaphor.