Page 79 - THE FIRE STATION
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“I thought I was rational, but I’m not.
My inner drive to check things out is a great help.”
Philippe Samyn
TRAFFIC FLOWS AND FUNCTIONALITY Returning from calls, response vehicles (60 in total) go either to the
car-wash or take the road circulating the building to their respective
There are some 400 people working for the Charleroi Fire Brigade, garages. Where necessary, they can also proceed to a repair/mainte-
and about 100 are to be found at any one time in the fire station nance workshop.
with its dual functions of an emergency response centre and a place
for living and sleeping. A separate garage section kept at a constant higher temperature
is reserved for the ambulances.
It was therefore seen as a good idea to classify and segregate
the different functions and their people flows, and also to correctly The 48 folding doors of the vehicle garages (for 22 fire trucks,
position entrances. 19 vans, 19 light vehicles) are all 6 metres high and open up onto
the exit road for emergency responses. Each truck has its own
The site has three accesses: exit door, thereby helping to avoid accidents with other vehicles
– the emergency response access on Level 1; and with firemen running from behind to get to their vehicles.
– the staff and visitors’ entrance on Level 0;
– the delivery entrance on Level 0. Initial response vehicles and all ambulances are stationed next
to the exit.
From the Rue de laTombe and the Sentier desTerrils, the draft pre-
sented in the competition provided for a wall made of perforated Both inside and outside the fire station, all vehicles turn left to
steel sheeting sporting the Charleroi Fire Brigade’s emblem.This enter the road system.
was intended to point visitors southwards to the entrance and the
museum. The vehicle lanes for entering and exiting the station do not inter-
sect and vehicles do not need to reverse or turn inside the building.
This design has now been greatly simplified, with staff, visitors and This ‘ring road’ surrounds the building’s core with its vertical distri-
deliveries all arriving on Level 0. bution functions (lifts and stairs).
Moreover, although in the original submission to the competition Also in the Level 1 core are the changing rooms for rescue crews,
this red wall separated the entrance and delivery access from the as well as the rooms for storing and maintaining equipment (masks,
open-air sports ground, it is now located on level 1 alongside the cylinders, hoses, etc.).These are arranged specifically to cater for re-
vehicle-manoeuvring zone. sponse needs, for instance allowing dirty equipment to be dropped
off near vehicle entrances and clean equipment to be picked up
The position of the fire station itself was basically determined by alongside parked rescue vehicles.
this decision to cluster emergency response traffic on Level 1.
Draft cross-section . DC 841 (2012_07_06)
