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

The Big Roof 消防局 by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 鐵獎 in 建築、樓宇及結構設計 Competition Category.

鐵建築· 2023

The Big Roof 消防局

by Chuan-Chih Chang, Joe Lin and Yeling Chen

Client: KeeLung City Govenrment

A' Design Award 鐵獎 Winner in 建築 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About The Big Roof 消防局

大屋頂係台灣基隆一座消防局,基隆係一個多山多雨嘅城市。設計借鑒咗當地山屋嘅風格,令建築物既成為地標,又能夠融入地形之中。一個大型斜屋頂喺山坡表面形成新嘅一層。陽台同開口喺景觀同建築物之間營造出有遮蔽嘅空間。呢啲空間增加咗層次感,喺夏天減少直射陽光,亦都可以令自然通風。消防局旁邊有一條景觀步道,通往公園同周邊嘅自然景觀。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鐵獎

The Big Roof 消防局是 A' Design Award 鐵獎得主，這是授予滿足人們對設計精良的創作所期待的專業與工業要求的優良設計的聲望認可。鐵獎得主展現出其創作者的高超技藝、高度專業化、專家級的理解力和創造能力。預計The Big Roof 消防局將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的創作，既實用又創新。這件贏得 A' Design Award 鐵獎的設計整合了行業最佳實踐，並擁有與專業知識和才華相結合的稱職技術特性。The Big Roof 消防局因其嚴謹而受到尊重，旨在提供有助於讓世界變得更美好的生活品質改善。

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