This project has already received considerable publicity and wide professional acclaim. Therefore, one only needs to highlight its key themes and perhaps link them to emerging international views on public works of this kind. The new Constitutional Court is a remarkable realisation of the essence of small narratives. It incisively suggests South African past requires inverse narratives. It takes the South African Judiciary’s collective view expressed in the competition brief as absolute architectural value. A direct result of this is the airy, light, transparent and open feel of the building. Lightness of touch, not being stuffy and over-bureaucratic, transparency and openness are also the ideals of the Judiciary of the New South Africa.

Urban design, planning, architecture and interior architecture are not seen as separate processes but as one single unified process.
The project is an ensemble of modest but dignified new buildings with some of the older built structures retained. It is non-exclusive in the sense that even a minor building like the existing and adjacent transformer house is brought into compositional play to create a sense of enclosure for the recreational garden for the staff at the rear. The notorious prison Blocks 4 and 5 are opened up as museums of history with permanent as well as periodically changing exhibitions of topical interest. It is integrated with the Court complex by a gently ascending series of steps, intended not to present a monumental building on a podium but to provide the possibility for a gentle promenade. The gentle African Steps flow into the foyer then becomes the exhibition gallery to be viewed from inside and outside from the steps and eventually culminating in the library. The old Isolation Block in front of the present foyer was demolished to make way for the forecourt and the brick from which it was built recycled to provide a rough wall surface for the court chamber, creating a robust hybrid,as South Africa is just such a hybrid.

Constructional systems are straight forward. So is the design of the landscape. The passive cooling system is a feature of pride for the client.
The administrative block serves as a buffer or rather a transition between the public exhibition area and the judges’ chambers. The art works in the court are integral to the space, both internal and external and the fabric of the building. They present an inverse narrative of classical arcadia where poets and philosophers strolled through nature reflecting on the nature of art. The judiciary is offered opportunity for reflecting on society as they move through arts collections. The possibilities this project offers for prodigious interpretation are immense.