«Speising Fire Station» for illiz Architektur

«Speising Fire Station» for illiz Architektur

Homepage illiz Architektur Feuerwache Speising
© illiz Architektur

› 2021, Project description for the homepage of illiz Architektur. 

 

› How do you design a fire station? How do you give this important infrastructure building an individual expression? These were the exciting questions I dealt with while writing about the bright yellow fire station in Vienna commissioned by the architectural firm illiz.

 

The project description of 3800 characters is published on the homepage of illiz Architektur.
 

https://www.illiz.eu/

› When the alarm goes off at the Speising fire station, the full-time fire brigade has just 30 seconds to be ready for action and move out. Where seconds are decisive, ensuring optimal workflows and thus tactical functionalism is demanded of the architects. At the same time, a distinctive architecture was to be created for this important infrastructure building, which is operating around the clock every day of the year.

 

In the summer of 1927, the Vienna Fire Brigade moved into the newly constructed building in Speisinger Straße, which is located directly on one of the most important traffic axes in Vienna’s 13th district. Some ninety years on and with the fire brigade’s tasks constantly expanding, the building no longer met operational requirements. In 2018, the Municipal Department 68 of Vienna launched a competition to design a replacement building for the existing street wing and a restructuring and general renovation of the main building behind it. The winning project by illiz architektur was completed in January 2021.

 

The facility consists of three spatio-functional units: the vehicle hall, the high activity areas and the quiet rooms. The existing space in the Wilhelminian style building at the back of the deep plot has been restructured and is now fully usable. The common area and the kitchen with adjoining dining room as well as an outdoor terrace are located on the ground floor, the six sleeping quarters for the total of twelve firefighters are located on the upper floor. The new one-storey vehicle hall faces the street. The hall and the old building remain recognisable as independent structures and are linked to each other by a low “joint” volume, which also forms the main entrance for the fire station. In the immediate vicinity of this main entrance – between the vehicle hall and the common rooms – the office of the watch commander is strategically located.

 

In order to achieve an economical and sustainable design, the vehicle hall is thermally disconnected. With an eye to the short construction time, a high degree of prefabrication was chosen: Precast concrete elements and hollow-deck ceilings span the twelve-metre wide hall. Here, three red fire engines are ready to move out of the hall at any time. At the back of the hall are the red wardrobes. The inside of the new building is dominated by exposed concrete. As a non-combustible material, it gives the impression of safety. To the left of the hall, a high entrance gate regulates access to the inner courtyard, where the staff can park their vehicles and exercise their operations. To the right of the hall, a height change in the façade indicates the low secondary rooms behind it.

 

The new building volume provides a continuous front to Speisinger Straße, so that the area in front of it conveys a newly acquired clarity. The six-metre-high hall hardly distinguishes itself volumetrically from the urban context. The functional building envelope with the characteristically high folding garage doors on the other hand stands out. The façade has an unexpectedly tectonic effect with its pillar and architrave-like construction. The expedient reduction of the façade height also creates an adequate transition on the right side at the connection to the bordering firewall.

 

The use of the classic Viennese façade colour yellow – predominant in Speising – serves to blend the building into its surroundings. A strong yellow unites the various metalwork of the new façade and creates an identity-forming appearance for the Speising fire station. In a protective and serving way, the design provides space for the firefighters who regularly risk their own well-being to save lives.

› 2021, Project description for the homepage of illiz Architektur. 

 

› How do you design a fire station? How do you give this important infrastructure building an individual expression? These were the exciting questions I dealt with while writing about the bright yellow fire station in Vienna commissioned by the architectural firm illiz.

 

The project description of 3800 characters is published on the homepage of illiz Architektur.
 

https://www.illiz.eu/

© illiz Architektur