
Students of the Gdańsk University of Technology - Kacper Radziszewski and Jakub Grabowski - designed the building of the main fire station in San Francisco and won the international architectural competition of San Francisco Fire Department Headquarters. Second place went to Sylwia Franczak from Cracow University of Technology.
The task of the competition participants was to design the main fire station building in San Francisco. According to the competition rules, the building should be located on the currently undeveloped pier, a hydro structure in the form of an artificial island, peninsula or platform.
According to Gdańsk University of Technology, students of the Faculty of Architecture divided the pier into three zones: the fire department building with a multi-storey car park, public and recreation space - green park commemorating the San Francisco Fire Department operations, and a dock for aircraft carrier - increased range vessel.
"The part determining the project was primarily the nature of rescue operations. During the design we took into account the equipment used by firefighters, vehicle sizes, access to roads, helicopter landing safety zones, neighbourhood of water and the location of tanks containing flammable substances" - described the young designers.
The winners designed the complex corresponding to the industrial, harbour aesthetics of the location. They bet on simplicity and minimalism, and the exposed structure and transparency of the façade is, as they point out, an attempt to show pragmatism related to the nature of the San Francisco Fire Department Headquarters operations. "We have planned something quite innovative for this type of topic - an aircraft carrier serving as a mobile command center" - said the students.
The Polish team beat 220 teams from around the world. The winners received the prize of 3 thousand euros. Their project will be on display at the Architecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB) and at the University of La Salle. They will receive a selected architectural magazine subscription.
In June 2013, Kacper Radziszewski and Jakub Grabowski won an international competition for the development of the Camelot hill, "Camelot Research & Visitors Center". They competed against 343 projects from around the world .
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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