Unquestionably the most successful design by Zaha Hadid so far, winning her a Pritzker Prize, the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein is a dynamic deconstruction of mankind’s most fascinating phenomenon: fire.
Weil Am Rhein is one of those unknown, special little town on the Germany, France, Swiss border. It had already boasted works from great architects like Frank Gehry.
Vitra, a Swiss furniture design company, is also known for hiring popular architects, such as Tadao Ando.
The design conveys an urgency that is associated with fire stations, with fleeting shapes that break away and interior facades that permit light as horizontal beams of speed. The arrow pointed concrete peace is held up precariously from what seems like the skeletal structure of a burnt out building. The concrete form seems impervious to the dynamic change of fire, yet something has obviously moved it and deconstructed it.
Built in 1993, this took the fire station as it was, a home away from home and efficient utilitarian station, and uncovered the true human meaning.
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