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FITTING FIRESTATION 10
Jan - Sep 02 part of kunstprojekte_riem (Curator: Claudia Büttner)
Allowing architectural formalism to meet the needs daily life, a six-month consultation and design collaboration with the fireman of Feuerwache 10 in Munich led to permanent changes for their new building.
During the visit of Mobile Porch to Messestadt Riem in 2001 the fireman invited Böhm/Lang/Saffer to visit their new building in order to suggest decorative ideas for their interior. Since its completion in 1998, the Firestation has received a lot of interest and recognition from the professional architecture world. However the firemen, working 24-hour shifts, experienced various frictions between their everyday activities and the imposed aesthetics of the building.
Böhm/Lang/Saffer initiated a second fitting, involving a process of exchange between the users, Reinhold Bauer, the original designer and the governing body of the building in order to develop a common ground for discussing and realizing much needed changes: a careful negotiation between the vision of a new building and the reality of its daily use.
A shelf was installed in the canteen to mark the start of an exchange and worked as an interface between the different groups involved. Ideas for changes were collected and published on the shelf. Three main issues emerged: exposed concrete walls in the sleeping rooms, lack of an informal meeting space for the evenings and an anonymous façade, making it difficult to recognize the building as a firestation.
Between May and November 2002 three permanent additions were designed and implemented, using the resources (workshops, skills, equipment) of the fire-service (as offered by the
firefighters themselves).
A new seating area has been put into the canteen, following the Munich wide tradition of having
an "Eckbank" (an L-shaped bench with table) for informal get-togethers in the evening.
All 19 sleeping rooms are now fitted with adjustable wooden cladding behind the beds, acting as a back for reading, providing shelf space for personnel belongings and containing individual reading lamps.
A building high image of the firefighters team in action has been painted on the aluminum cladding of the façade.
The project was officially launched in May 2003 where the firefighters expressed their wish of continuing the fitting process and asked Böhm/Saffer/Lang to stay involved.
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