Galeria Emergency Center / Studio Pia

Architects: Studio Pia
Area: 700 m²
Year: 2024
Photographs: 11h45
Structure: ISB
Category: Public Architecture, Fire Station
Lead Team: Pierre-Louis Filippi
Design Team: Studio Pia
Architecture Offices: Filippi & Architectes Associés
Fluids: SMI
Commune: Galeria
Country: France

Galeria Emergency Center, a fire station designed by Studio Pia, has improved operational efficiency and landscape integration at its site. The project organizes spaces to support firefighters’ workflow, arranging areas such as locker rooms, showers, and living zones to reduce wasted time and movement. Galeria Emergency Center uses the sloping topography for a semi-embedded design, minimizing the building’s impact while employing tinted concrete that reflects local minerals like rhyolite and red pyrite. The building’s sculpted concrete form integrates into the landscape and remains visually distinct and functional. The project uses walls along the road to create a protective barrier, forming a patio open to the Fango Delta panorama. Galeria Emergency Center aligns its organization and materials with the symbolism of firefighting and its unique setting, providing both a workplace and a living environment for users.

An ultra-functional layout was considered essential to ensure firefighter efficiency in emergencies. The coded and mechanical process influenced the spatial organization, resulting in a sequence of spaces that operate like a machine serving its users: dirty locker rooms, showers, clean locker rooms, and living spaces. All spatial interactions were designed to reduce unnecessary use of space and time.

Landscape integration influenced the search for plasticity in the design. The sloped topography allowed for a semi-embedded building, decreasing its presence on the site. The use of tinted concrete, colored to match the site’s minerals such as rhyolite and red pyrite, contributes to both the building’s integration and its distinct identity. The concrete is sculpted in mass, similar to the landscape’s rock, to provide an integrated, functional, and identifiable fire station for users, residents, and visitors.

The symbolism of the program and the building’s integration into the landscape served as key guiding principles for the project. By refining the layout, the design closes the station along the road, forming a patio that opens toward the panorama of the Fango Delta. The walls serve as a protective barrier, shielding the building from road noise and visual intrusion. The project’s clarity comes from its dual function as both a workplace and a living space.