The new fire station in Ingelheim am Rhein proves that functionality and striking architectural presence can be beautifully unified. Serving the region and the Boehringer industrial park, this facility operates in a world where every second matters in an emergency. Braunger Wörtz Architects therefore faced the challenge of meeting their client's spatial requirements and vehicle parking needs while creating optimal workflows and clear operational logic. Equally important: the client wanted a building with distinctive character and presence. The result speaks for itself—a refined angular form crowned by a distinctive hose and training tower.

Set within an industrial park, the building organizes the site into three purposeful zones: the main entrance and first responder parking to the south, the operational yard with training court and reserve parking to the east, and the alarm yard for emergency vehicles to the west. Warm beige banded facades punctuated by solid walls and open hall structures—with expansive glazing and sequenced bay doors—create an elegant composition. For durable, low-maintenance interiors, the architects specified glazed concrete semi-finished components for interior walls and concrete sandwich panels for the façade. Extensive floor-to-ceiling glazing paired with strategically positioned skylights—notably the shed roofs over the training spaces—flood the building with natural light.

The building's internal organizational layout mirrors its clear external composition: the expansive vehicle hall accommodates all vehicles, storage, workshops, and the wash bay. The administrative wing—featuring the fire department command center, locker rooms, offices, and fitness areas—is organized across two levels within the vehicle hall's cubic volume. Beyond the rest areas, youth and training rooms occupy the eastern section of the upper floor. These spaces are flexibly interconnected and are elegantly daylit through shed roof structures. The hose maintenance facility, crowned by a training tower, marks the functional climax at the site's terminus. To master the complex operational workflows and implement them optimally, the architects collaborated closely with the fire department. It comes as no surprise that the new Ingelheim am Rhein Fire Station received the BDA Architecture Prize for Rhineland-Palatinate—recognized in particular for its "sensitive feel for materials and their constructive detailing" and the "organization of all spaces and halls".

www.bw-architekten.com

Photography Credits:

Erich Spahn, Regensburg
www.erich-spahn.de

(Featured in CUBE Frankfurt 04|23)