CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres Molano
Geopolitical location of space:
Cra. 7 #63-44
Bogotá, Cundinamarca
Extant? Yes
Architect:
Architect unknown
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (in Spanish: Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, JEP) has been in force in Colombia since March 2017, when it was approved in the Senate. It handles crimes committed during the armed conflict up until the signature of the Colombian Peace Accord in 2016.
The JEP is the Colombian transitional justice mechanism through which FARC members, members of the Colombian military forces, and third parties who have participated in the Colombian armed conflict are investigated and put on trial. It is a space for the encounters of offenders, survivors, and judges of the internal conflict. Housed in a repurposed building, the JEP was created to ensure the victims’ rights to justice and contribute to reparation.
Yes, the JEP is the main court for transitional justice in Colombia. It is the legal mechanism in charge of investigating the crimes committed during the conflict. Its spaces are used for encounters and public releases of the official reports. The court is focused on the most serious and representative crimes of the conflict, including the crimes committed by military forces and government officers. Within the scope of the court’s mandate, 38 magistrates will handle the crimes of more than 6.000 offenders, a process which includes encounters with survivors.
Yes, the rooms where encounters take place have been designed specifically to support active listening and eye contact between participants.
Perpetrators of serious crimes, including FARC members, military personnel, government officials, and survivors.
The official reports produced by the JEP and certain encounters are made public and are used to foster social dialogue on truth, reparation, and non-repetition of the conflict.
Building Torre Squadra
Architect: Unknown
Built area: 30,000 m2
Office area: 16,000 m2
Floor area: 1,400 m2 per floor
Lobby: 600 m2
It is a 12-storey building in a commercial area of the city. It is a building of contemporary architecture with glass façades, a terrace and a heliport on the last floor. It has five underground floors for parking with a capacity of 340 cars. On the second and third floors they have built five special courtrooms with a circular shape that allows eye contact between offenders and survivors. According to the executive secretary of the JEP, the circle shape has a symbolic meaning in comparison to the regular courtroom; it allows both the responsibility of the offenders and the emotions of survivors to be seen. The circle shape grants an opportunity for dialogue. “Architecture should never segregate or inhibit this opportunity…; therefore forgiveness and reconciliation processes must happen in a proper space” (Semana, 2018).
The building includes a technological system that allows the live presentations of encounters all over the Colombian territory to ensure the participation of all survivors and population. It also has sound-controlled rooms exclusively for survivors, who might need a space for reflection. It has one room dedicated to truth recognition, a room for investigating political crimes, and a sentencing room.
The JEP occupies a rented space (at a cost of approx. 430,369 USD per month). This has become a topic of controversy in the country. Political opponents of the JEP have been using the building cost as a reason to try to halt the work under its mandate.
Every courtroom has been decorated with institutional images, and judges must wear a special uniform of the JEP. From the outside, however, the building does not distinguish itself from the architectural style of the other buildings in the commercial sector where it is located. Moreover, it does not have any special insignia identifying it as Special Justice for Peace. The building’s location was a key consideration; being centrally located makes it easily accessible by public transportation.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
