Richard Rogers: Bordeaux Law Courts

Whilst visiting Madrid in September, I visited the Richard Rogers & Architects exhibition at the La Caixa Forum, in the gorgeous museum and galleries quarter of the city. The Caxia Forum is a recently opened public gallery, which is worth visiting just for its oddball good-looks and verdant vertical garden alone.

After watching the tour de Spain zip by on the Paseo de Prado, we mooched inside - I thought that I'd died and gone to heaven...so many teeny-tiny, perfect maquettes, so little time!

I was absolutely blown away by pretty much everything that I saw. Although perhaps not as sprawling as some of his other designs, I fell in love with this building, the Bordeaux Law Courts. It's so quirky (I mean this in the best sense of the word) and curious and almost cartoon-like, which is something that you just don't expect from a court of law. The alien-like pods are actually courtrooms, naturally lit from above. And I think that it looks all the more curious for being situated so close to the medieval city wall.

I'd like to see it with my own two eyes.