Obviously, everyone faces each other in a circle and attention is, more or less, focused at the central point of the circle. When a person speaks, the attention usually switches to that person. With that in mind, the potential architectural side effects are:
- If anyone is in the center, their back is always to someone (duh)
- While the gallery (audience) seating can be circularly arranged to encompass the well, doing so would introduce lots of issues with people being behind the judge...how does he or she get in and out? What about the Jury, Attorneys and Witnesses? Do they have to go through the gallery?
- Smaller diameter circle means more intimate setting - seating around the circle is closer, this can be good or bad.
- Larger diameter circle means more spacious seating but the distances could affect speech intelligibility and the well takes up more space in the courtroom.
- Who gets to be in the circle? Are multiple circles possible? (This is where the majority of my attention will be)
While I don't have the solution perfectly figured out, I do believe the changes I have made to the circular arrangement of the courtroom are pointed in the right direction.
Basically, I thought of the circular court as a sports game and venue (Football Stadium, Soccer Stadium, Boxing Ring, Bull Fighting Arena, Wrestling Ring etc.) All of these events and accompanying venues have a "circular" arrangement. Examining these layouts has proved to be helpful in determining a viable solution. More on this later!
I have another review on Wednesday, the purpose of this review is to get feedback on these revamped well layouts and show how they perform acoustically (those tests will occur between now and then.) I will have a public defender from Atlanta and outside acoustician at the review, so the feedback should be good! Here is a teaser of what I plan to have for review...
Version 1 (view from the entrance and gallery seating)
Version 2 (view from the gallery and entrance)
Version 2 (Juror view in well)
Version 2 (attorney view in well - far)
Version 2 (Judge View)
Version 2 (Lectern 1 view in well)
Version 2 (Court reporter view in well)
Shout out to Tucker and Kristen Wigington for letting me use their WiFi to post this!
