Standing outside the gates to the small courthouse in Concepción de Ataco, El Salvador, one cannot help but think about the role of courts and how architecture and design reinforce that role, or not. Should courthouses be places that seem accessible, where problems that perhaps have escalated just a notch too far might still be resolved reasonably? Or are they meant to intimidate, to be a destination of last resort? Here, in Concepción de Ataco, a small town of 18,000 people in the Ahuachapán Department of El Salvador, we get a little bit of both—a small-scale building, approachable enough, yet one that is flanked by very sturdy and imposing metal bars. It is a dichotomy emblematic of court systems everywhere—should they punish or rehabilitate? Intimidate or nurture? And how should they reflect a nation’s sometimes troubled history and its present challenges?
At the gate of a courthouse in Concepción de Ataco, El Salvador. Photo credit: Lori Tripoli.
Some words of explanation at a courthouse in Concepción de Ataco, El Salvador. Photo credit: Lori Tripoli.
Interested in courthouses around the world? You might like these posts:
- An Antigua Courthouse Turned Museum in St. John’s
- Old Courthouse, Cong, Ireland
- New U.S. District Courthouse for the Northern Mariana Islands
- Courthouse Art: Requiring Worship or Inspiring Liberty