Reviewing the UK’s best buildings for the first decade of the 21st century, internationally respected architecture and design magazine Blueprint named the Manchester Civil Justice Centre in the top 10.

Australian firm Denton Corker Marshall designed the MCJC, which was the UK’s largest civil and family court to be built for more than 100 years.

It has been honoured with more than 20 awards including a Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) National Award for Architecture and the Australian Institute of Architects’ Jørn Utzon Award for Most Outstanding Work of International Architecture.

Described by Blueprint editor Peter Kelly as a civic facility of true excellence, the courts building is regarded as a symbol of the city’s global significance.

The Blueprint team says that the MCJC incorporates all elements of Manchester’s complex urban environment, with “style, ambition and an extraordinary attention to detail”.

“Denton Corker Marshall has created a spectacle of justice - a place where justice can be seen to be done, and its presence is felt throughout the city. The product of a particular moment of economic revival, the Civil Justice Centre taps into the commercial and moral heart of Manchester,” concludes the report.

Conceived in a limited design competition against Richard Rogers Partnership and Pringle Richards Sharatt, the building was completed in 2007.

Success in design competitions is something of a practice signature, having won numerous commissions to design buildings of international significance. The competition-winning Stonehenge Visitor Centre, Australian Embassy in Jakarta and Broadway Building at the University of Technology Sydney are among current projects on Denton Corker Marshall’s drawing board.

The Blueprint team’s 10 examples of “British architecture at its best”, included work by Herzog & De Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Foster and Partners and Caruso St John.

David Wheeldon

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