A new building is being built for the Court of Amsterdam – the largest court in the Netherlands – on its current site in the Zuidas district of Amsterdam. The new court will have a vast area of rooms and office space that has been specially designed to cater for the building’s use. The building will open its doors in mid-2020.

Choice of NACH consortium
In April 2016, the Central Government Real Estate Agency selected the New Amsterdam Court House (NACH) consortium to design, finance, build, maintain and operate the new Amsterdam Court House building. ABT – together with Macquarie Capital, DVP, KAAN Architecten, Heijmans and Facilicom – is part of NACH.

Prominent open building
A preliminary design showed a prominent open building that gives employees and visitors a view of the city and allows passers-by a glimpse into the building. It is of central importance to NACH that the administration of justice is a public matter of the highest importance. This starting point gives shape to the building, which could also be described as prominent and accessible. The forecourt, the central hall in the building and the foyers, the waiting areas for visitors, are a continuation of the city. Visitors are able to visit secure areas, whilst judges, registrars and representatives of the Public Prosecution Service have their own secure routes.

Role of ABT
ABT  advises on the construction, foundation, fitting techniques, physics of the building, security and fire safety. In order to complete the implementation realisation plan (IRP) in time – at the beginning of 2017 – the decision was taken with NACH to opt for concurrent engineering. The NACH specialists work parallel (in BIM) rather than serially, allowing all specialists to work on their own part simultaneously – from courtroom to office – in accordance with the building blocks method. The specialists develop the building blocks down to the smallest detail. The building blocks that are ready are then 'copied' to the other planned courtrooms, offices and toilet groups. This method used to be the norm, but digitisation has rendered it obsolete. NACH is now restoring this method in honour. The NACH project team of around a hundred people – including 35 from ABT – are working on the project under one roof. The LEAN method sets the tone. Self-managing teams are working on each building block, whilst a target team is overseeing the project as a whole. And the partners reach decisions together at the right times.