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

The Big Roof 消防站 by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 铁奖 in 建筑与结构设计 Competition Category.

铁建筑· 2023

The Big Roof 消防站

by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen

Client: KeeLung City Govenrment

A' Design Award 铁奖 Winner in 建筑 Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #144154

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The Design

About The Big Roof 消防站

「大屋頂」是位於台灣基隆的一座消防站，基隆是一座多山且多雨的城市。設計汲取當地山居建築的形式語彙，使建築既能成為地標，又能融入地形之中。一片大坡屋頂在山體表面之上形成新的一層。陽台與開口在地景與建築之間創造出遮蔽性的過渡空間。這些空間增加了層次感，減少夏季的直射陽光，並促進自然通風。消防站旁的景觀步道則通往公園與周邊的自然環境。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铁奖

The Big Roof 消防站是 A' Design Award 铁奖得主，这是授予满足人们对设计精良的创作所期待的专业与工业要求的优良设计的声望认可。铁奖得主展现出其创作者的高超技艺、高度专业化、专家级的理解力和创造能力。预计The Big Roof 消防站将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的创作，既实用又创新。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铁奖的设计整合了行业最佳实践，并拥有与专业知识和才华相结合的称职技术特性。The Big Roof 消防站因其严谨而受到尊重，旨在提供有助于让世界变得更美好的生活品质改善。

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