Situated on the northern edge of central Paris, the new Palais de Justice will regroup various facilities currently dispersed around the capital, becoming the largest law courts complex in Europe. The building takes the form of a slim, transparent, 160m tower of stacked volumes of decreasing size, carefully laid out for efficiency and ease of use. The scale of the building is reduced by breaking it down into four superimposed volumes of decreasing size, the first of which, long and low, fits in readily with the proportions of Haussmann’s Paris. The three subsequent levels each contain some ten stories. This tiered system gives rise to large roof terraces – around a hectare in total – which will be landscaped and planted with some 500 trees, again softening the feel of the building and creating comfortable spaces for reflection or discussion.