Operational Fire and Rescue Stations
Design
Our primary design objective for the city centre station was to replace the existing and outdated facility with a fit-for-purpose and energy efficient building; at Brough we designed a new station to replace an outdated leased premises. The station in the centre of Hull is located adjacent a Grade II Listed Church and a mixture of medium rise residential buildings. This context has played into the traditional form of the building and the materials we have selected. The heavy use of brick throughout the station is broken up by vertical profiled black cladding and a perforated metal façade. For the Brough fire station we have opted for a slightly more contemporary design approach with regard to the form and materials, reflecting the surrounding industrial building types.
“This is the third station to open in the last two years! This is a wonderful new facility - probably the best one yet in terms of its location, facilities and the journey we have gone through to get here.”
Dene Sanders, Chief Fire Officer for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service
Build
The two facilities presented their own unique design challenges and site context which resulted in us delivering two distinctly different schemes tailored to the needs of each station. Whilst different in some respects, both stations have adapted the same design ethos and incorporate ladder training facilities for the fire crews as part of the make-up of the buildings. It was also important to our client that in addition to being fire stations, that both facilities contribute further to the local communities. To fulfil this, both also function as a public resource offering access to gym areas and IT learning support.
In-use
The new Spring Street Central station replaces the outdated Worship Street station, providing a new training hub, meeting accommodation, high specification gym and rest areas. The station is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week so required sleeping accommodation for four watches, each with six crew members. One of the challenges faced was, as the station is situated in the heart of the city in a high traffic flow area, it was essential to the design that multiple entrance and exit points were incorporated to enable the crews to avoid congested traffic and intern speed up response times. This was key as many significant historic buildings, museums and Hull Royal Infirmary fall within the station's catchment area.
- Thanks and photo credits to Humberside Fire and Rescue -