A MIXED-USE COMPLEX COMPRISING A FIRE STATION AND A NEIGHBOURHOOD SPORTS FACILITY | OPEN COMPETITION ORGANISED BY THE CLIENT, 1ST PLACE
A fire station is a place of emergency. It is mainly shaped by the many flows that cross it: people, vehicles, goods, outfits, … Time constitutes here a key design parameter. But a fire station is also an inhabited place, a building where men and women live, work, eat, learn, practice, or sleep.
The design embodies these two worlds which we call the Temple and the Village. The intervention temple forms the base of the building where the garage and the technical zones are placed. They support fast departure and smooth arrival. On the upper levels however, the Village acts as a counterpole to the technicity of the ground area. Here is the living quarter of the fire station where the firemen and women can wait for the emergency in all serenity. The Village and the Temple are connected via a series of cores, the Sentinels. They ensure a fast route to the departure zone at any moment and from any place.
The project reaches from the canal area to the busy environment of the Chaussée de Mons. The intervention temple is articulated along different outdoor rooms : the departure porch, the central courtyard and the arrival zone. The village responds – by either addition or subtraction – to the heterogeneous morphology of the neighbouring buildings. Last but not least: a sports centre is integrated in the Village which is shared with the neighbourhood. With its iconic entrance from the canal side, it gives a public face to the otherwise detached world of the fire station.
Selected publications: Canal.brussels, A+, Architectura, Archi urbain, Afasia, Bouwkroniek, De Architect, BX1, BRUZZ