The Big Roof Brandstation by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen

The Big Roof Brandstation by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award i Järn in Arkitektur-, Byggnads- och Konstruktionsdesign Competition Category.

JärnArkitektur· 2023

The Big Roof Brandstation

by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen

Client: KeeLung City Govenrment

A' Design Award i Järn Winner in Arkitektur Category

9,915

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #144154

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About The Big Roof Brandstation

Det Stora Taket är en brandstation i Keelung, Taiwan, en bergig och regnig stad. Designen anpassar den lokala bergsstilen för hus, så att byggnaden framstår som ett landmärke samtidigt som den smälter in i terrängen. Ett stort sluttande tak bildar ett nytt skikt över bergsytan. Balkonger och öppningar skapar skyddade utrymmen mellan landskapet och byggnaden. Dessa utrymmen tillför djup, minskar direkt solljus sommartid och möjliggör naturlig ventilation. En naturskön stig bredvid brandstationen leder till parken och det omgivande landskapet.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award i Järn

The Big Roof Brandstation är vinnare av A' Design Award i Järn, ett prestigefyllt erkännande som tilldelas bra designverk som uppfyller de professionella och industriella krav som förväntas av välgjorda skapelser. Järnvinnare visar stor skicklighet, hög specialisering, expertförståelse och skaparnas kreativa förmåga. The Big Roof Brandstation förväntas vara en högt skattad, beundrad och älskad skapelse som är praktisk och innovativ. Detta vinnande verk i A' Design Award i Järn integrerar branschens bästa praxis och har kompetenta tekniska egenskaper kopplade till kunnande och talang. The Big Roof Brandstation respekteras för sin grundlighet och är utformat för att åstadkomma förbättringar av livskvaliteten som hjälper till att göra världen till en bättre plats.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Fire station is a landmark and yet still blending into the environment. The project is located at Keelung, Taiwan, a mountainous and rainy city. It is crucial to design the interface of the urban context and the building which connects visual guidance and natural shades for rain or sun. People can take the scenic path right by the fire station to access the park, the east bridge, the natural landscape. It is a statement of the fire station being part of local residents' lives.
Dimensions & Packaging: Floors: 4F / Site Area: 1780 m2 / Floor Print Area: 780 m2 / Total Floor Area: 2045 m2 / Height: 14.45 m / Construction Fee: 3,000,000 euro
Tags: big roof, fire station, architecture, taiwan
Production Technology: Because of the local humid weather and limited budget, the fire station itself is expected to be easy to construct and maintain. The excavation strategy for mountain soil is very economy efficient, and use raw concrete formboard and self-compacting concrete for main structure and exterior walls. Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, so we avoid to use stone panel or tiles, to prevent its damaging caused by earthquakes. Mineral painting on the big slope roof top also helps as the waterproofed layer.
Design Challenge: The most difficult challenge of this project is the local mountain terrain and the project is located on a 45degree slope terrain. We need to think about how to construct at a steep terrain and also how to pour concrete when the local weather is often humid all year long. Therefore, during the design process, architects highly participate at the pre-construction meetings and also discuss with contractors about construction methods that helps to complete the project under limited budget.
Research: For architectures like police and fire stations, are usually designed as a majestic building in image or form wise in Asian societies. Taiwan government also tries to re-connect people and public institutions to improve public services. So during design process, architects try to design these public institutions based on regionalism and avoid the majestic image. So the design concept is to adapt “mountain house” style at this area and into our main building elements to the landscape and climate.
Inspiration: The concept is to adapt an indigenous building style “mountain house” in Taiwan, which have taken into the main building elements to the landscape and climate. The big sloping roof is a new layer of the mountain skin. The balconies and openings form unique space in-between the landscape and building and also create additional depth in in the summer to avoid sunlight but still allows natural ventilation, it also allow people doing multiple activities doing in and out the new mountain skin.
Project Duration: The project started in March 2017, and finished in March, 2021, located in Keelung city, Taiwan.
Operation Flow: At Asia cities that are similar to Taiwan’s, firefighters usually need to cover double amount of citizen’s safety than western countries. So when designing a fire station, architects not only need to design an efficient office, but also a good living residence. Because we believe with good living spaces, it can benefit both life and work quality. For this project, various balconies and openings allow great views from indoor to outdoor which offer great work and live spaces for firefighters.
Patents: For copyrights: Yen Partnership Architects + BBC Architects
Team Members: Yen Partnership Architects: Joe Lin, Yenling Chen
BBC Architects: ChuanChih Chang
Image Credits: photo: OS Studio