Page 10 - Court: The Place of Law and the Space of the City

10 Court

1 2
1 & 2

The raised apse, the figure of
the ‘author’ of the Law, heads
an axial plan - marked to form
a central nave and transepts.

3 4
3 & 4
The wall of the basilica
identifies the place of Law -
organising occupation of its
interior in accordance with the
rituals of legal practice - a
threshold between the ‘sacred’
and the ‘profane’.

5 6
5 & 6

The apse - the spatial
expression of superiority
through ‘height’ - marks,
explicitly, the power relations
observed in the trial.

7 8
7 & 8
The silhouette of the basilica’s
short elevation - a modest
entrance within a facade of
immense verticality and
monumental scale - defines the
outward expression of a
typology appropriated by both
Court and Church.

9 10
9 & 10
a
Height differentials between the
apse in the west and the
entrance in the east -
punctuating either end of the
nave - represent in space the
a b relation of the individual to the
b authority of Law as a civic
practice.

Deconstructing the Basilica Nova
Figure 6: Elements and symbols of the Basilica Nova.