In Bolzano (Italy) Roland Baldi Architects have designed the new building of the Civil Protection Centre Ritten, a “common home” for the command of the Fire Brigade, White Cross and Alpine Rescue with a simple and sculptural form, in contrast with the rural and local architectural language.
The two-storey building, constructed according to the Klimahaus A standards, is integrated into the natural course of the terrain slope and communicates with the north-facing entrance area with the main road and the residential area behind it.
The largest part of the volume, however, was arranged in a compact structure below the parking lot: the basement serves simultaneously as a boundary wall and fence for the car park above and the garage behind it.
The central main entrance on the ground floor leads directly to a spacious welcome area with a training room, which is open to the public and can also be easily used for external events; from the entrance area, via a central corridor, you can reach the recreational and administrative areas, which are arranged on both sides and are spatially separated from each other.
The storage rooms, offices and dormitories are located in the north, while training, recreation and youth rooms face south: in front of the three areas there are spacious terraces, which allow for a spatial extension of the recreation areas to the outside as well as the creation of a private, protected outdoor area.
In a central position there is the common staircase that connects the ground floor and operating rooms: the changing rooms are directly connected to the vehicle halls and have their own sanitary group with showers and WC, separated by gender.
This route organisation allows maximum functional efficiency and optimal separation of the different areas, while optimising synergies between the three civil protection organisations; in addition, thanks to the façade made of dyed stamped concrete in reddish colour inspired by famous Ritten earth pyramids, the Civil protection centre Ritten fits perfectly into the impressive landscape.
In fact, the façade design is based on the simple interplay between the materiality of the building skin and the flat transparent surfaces of the window elements; the use of stamped concrete gives the clear geometry of the building a lively and multi-layered surface and refers in terms of content to the surrounding landscape.
Finally, Roland Baldi Architects also designed the new underground car park, the public parking lot and the bus station directly adjacent to the Civil Protection Centre Ritten: together with the nearby railway station, these form the new mobility centre of Klobenstein.
