Turku Courthouse, designed by Pekka Pitkänen’s office as Pitkänen’s final project, is located at the corner of Sairashuoneenkatu and Linnankatu in the centre of Turku.

The courthouse, consisting of two wings is grouped around the courtyard of an old cork factory. The white office wing on the slope of Kakola hill and the wing of courtrooms with a granite façade were completed in 1997. The courthouse and its interiors have a visual resemblance to the Bauhaus style. The neo-renaissance cork factory and its storage wing form office wings on the side of Linnankatu street of the plot. The grey granite courtroom wing has a sharp corner and a round-shaped public staircase toward Linnankatu street.

The main entrance of the courthouse is situated in the courtyard in the wing with granite façades. From the entrance hall, the traffic is directed to the courtrooms and the offices. There is a three-storey high entrance hall to the criminal courtrooms. Above it, there is an entrance hall to the disputes courtrooms.

The courtrooms have large windows towards Sairashuoneenkatu and the Aura River, to open the life of the city to the court proceedings. Exterior views have been enabled by a creative solution of the interior traffic of the courthouse; the judges move via stairs between the courtrooms, which have links to the offices via a balcony level. The courtroom textiles are part of the detailed interior of the courthouse. Textiles were designed by Leena Wiikari.

The height of the courtroom wing was defined by the police station building on the opposite side of the street. On the riverside of the plot, the height is the same as the cork factory. The cork factory, designed by Arthur Kajanus in 1891, was restored from 1991 to 1994.

Text: Mikko Laaksonen