NEUBAU DER HAUPTFEUERWEHRWACHE

The new fire station in Düren is designed to integrate with the city's architectural heritage, especially the red brick architecture of the Metsa paper factory. This is achieved through careful material selection, building massing, and architectural expression, creating a sense of belonging. The façade, inspired by Düren’s key buildings like Burgau Castle and St. Anne's Church, uses locally sourced bricks, reflecting durability and security. Modern materials like glass, steel, and wood add a contemporary accent.

The design adapts to the surrounding area, with recessed upper floors and green roofs that help blend the building into the urban landscape. The fire station is both functionally and aesthetically integrated into Düren’s cityscape. The main entrance is highlighted by a spacious, two-story recess, symbolizing the fire station's service to the community, while the central tower seamlessly merges functional and aesthetic elements, blending smoothly into Düren's historic cityscape.

The L-shaped building consists of a solid north-south section and a slender east-west section. It has separate access points for cars and fire engines, and 58 parking spaces for visitors and firefighters, plus 20 bicycle spots. Emergency vehicles have direct access to Veldenerstraße, while others enter through the central courtyard. The second floor houses a rest area with green terraces. Other facilities include training rooms, a roof garden, and a volleyball court.

The design prioritizes operational efficiency, with quick access to vehicles, short distances, and well-designed rest areas for firefighters. The building’s main structure combines recycled concrete for the ground floor and cross-laminated timber for the upper floors, offering both strength and sustainability.

The fire station uses recycled bricks from demolition, cutting entire sections of walls to create new façade elements, reducing CO2 emissions. The building is designed to be energy-positive, with photovoltaic panels, green roofs, rainwater harvesting, and geothermal heating and cooling. Charging stations for electric fire engines are also included, making the fire station proposal a model of sustainable design.

Program: Fire Station

Size: 10.700 m2

Location: Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Client: Stadt Düren

Collaborators: Samyn and Partners

Type: competition

Team: Henning Stüben, Maxime Laroussi, Rosa Fuentes, Gustavo Sapina, Jieun Kim, Charlotte Klein, Leonard Lenk, Oğuzcan Çavuş, Luis Manovel, Borja Santurino