Schiphol has been going through some radical changes of late. These days the airport earns more revenue from shopping and real estate than from aviation related activities. Schiphol publicly aspires to become a city, an AirportCity. This project seeks to develop a way of achieving this aspiration using a case study. Schiphol's management board itself seems unable to come up with an appropriate answer. Banal advertising campaigns are all there are to suggest a city, with real opportunities going by the board. For one thing, a complex of lawcourts complete with cell blocks, court of justice and offices for the public prosecutor and the military police, has been erected in the former grounds of the Fokker aircraft company, way out of sight of the airport and its passengers.

This project is an architectural exploration of how it would be if the law court complex were to be inserted within the domain of the AirportCity. Though undesired by the airport management, it is this aspect that cuts to the core of the challenge of creating an AirportCity. The arrival of this classical city function provides an excellent opportunity to give substance to the desired urbanity. In its design it formulates answers to questions such as what kind of representation this new architecture could have, and how it connects to the existing airport with its concatenation of interiors.

In this perspective of Schiphol's urbanity, the court of justice and airport are two antitheses. The proposed insertion seeks to unite the statics of the court of justice and the dynamics of the airport in a single concept, treating the functions of justice and air travel as complementary.

In the design, the four conflicting principal duties of the complex are assembled together for the express purpose of shortening the lines of travel and facilitating the dispensation of justice. But there is a limit to their proximity to each other; the four should not be so intimate as to jeopardize their effectiveness individually. This design seeks to profit from this seeming lack of focus, resulting in a complex with multiple manifestations. In truth, it cannot be decided conclusively whether it is one building that divides into four parts, or four parts that add up to one building.

Lastly, two worlds come together in this complex: the airport and the city. The main central space, the actual Courtyard itself, is intended to serve both. It is not for nothing that the complex as a whole straddles the border between the terminal buildings and the adjoining business park. A tropical garden not only acts as an entrance hall to the court of justice, but adds a green social space to the AirportCity. It is a place where lawyers, airport staff and passengers cross paths and spend time.

Schiphol Courtyard is a call to upgrade the architectural plan, clearing the deck for new places, new images and new ideas about Schiphol. So the objective of this project lies beyond a mere case study: it tries to create a precedent for future developments in the AirportCity.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Christoph Grafe, Hielkje Zijlstra, Matthijs de Boer