Firestation for the city of Puurs / Compagnie O Architects

Architects: Compagnie O Architects
Location: Puurs, Belgium
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 2160.0 sqm
Photographs: Stijn Bollaert

The new fire station for the city of Puurs is build on a new plot next to the highway, emphasizing one of the key points in the design: speed.

A Fire station is the build reality of speed and efficiency, a heroic building standing tall in the surrounding chaos, forming a beacon for the city of Puurs.

This machine à travailler, home to around 60 firefighters, is designed to suite the high safety rules necessary to efficiently perform their tasks. Overview, cleanness and order throve the design to it’s build form.

The station measuring 35x72m and with a usable surface of approx. 2160 sqm can be divided in 3 zones: apparatus bay/vehicle storage, post intervention unit/technical area, fire corps representation/humane area. In the large central hall the intervention vehicles are hibernating behind the transparent gates… While the firemen socialize in their living room with a view on their fire trucks from the internal window bay. This Central belly of the beast divides the building in a humane section for all representative functions (administration, relaxation, fitness, etc) and a post intervention area designed for maintenance of all equipment. On the lateral sides of the station a five-meter wide canopy literally frames the building in de surrounding landscape. From the highway the hose-drying-tower, combined with a practicing tower, acts as a vertical entity and forms a lighthouse, prominent and ready for action at any time of the day.