Fleres Fire Station

Val di Fleres on the Alps is often exposed to natural hazards but Roland Baldi turned the crumbling slope into a design feature, making the fire station a continuation of the detritus deposited by landslides and creating a symbiosis with the natural environment and the catchment dam.

Roland Baldi, Caserma dei Vigili del Fuoco, Comune di Brennero /Colle Isarco, Val di Fleres, Bolzano

The Fire Station in Val di Fleres designed by Roland Baldi seems to perforate the verdant catchment dam and optically continue the movement of landslide deposits towards the valley.

The new building sits parallel to the road and has two service zones – the garage and work/office area – clearly identified from the road as two masses of different heights. The rear portion of the building containing the store rooms and ancillary spaces was partially incorporated into the catchment dam, whereas the garage and office spaces project forward from the building. The changing rooms have skylights for ventilation and lighting.

Roland Baldi, Caserma dei Vigili del Fuoco, Comune di Brennero /Colle Isarco, Val di Fleres, BolzanoRoland Baldi, Caserma dei Vigili del Fuoco, Comune di Brennero /Colle Isarco, Val di Fleres, Bolzano — Roland Baldi, Fleres Fire Station, Brennero /Colle Isarco, Val di Fleres, Bolzano, Italy

The east side houses the garage, an area for drying fire hoses and a workshop, store, power room, mask storage area, and a boot wash close to the changing rooms.

The smaller construction meets ClimateHouse B energy standards and, in direct visual contact with the garage, contains the control and communications room, the changing rooms, a small office, the boiler room with access from outside and the lecture room with kitchenette.

The design features safe access routes and internal processes with special attention paid to separating the private vehicle entrance from the emergency fire-truck exit.

The Fire Station is accessed directly from the car park via an entrance on the west side of the building. This also leads directly to the lecture room, office and changing rooms, which are directly linked to the garage. The communications and control room can be entered from both the lecture room and the changing rooms, and has direct visual contact with the building’s entrance and the garage. The latter houses four parking spaces, 10m deep and 4.5m wide, and is lit by natural light thanks to full-height windows on the four folding garage doors. The whole building is in reinforced concrete.

The most striking feature of the building are its monolithic facades, characterised by a clear, modern design and a small selection of materials: stone, glass and aluminium.

The whole facade was clad with scree and Dolomite stone drawn from the detritus and used to fill the custom-made mesh cages applied to the entire shell of the fire station.