SFFDH - San Francisco Fire Department Headquarters

How can we honor those people who risk their lives for other people every day? How can we worthily remember their sacrifice? These were the first questions we had to answer in order to shape this project. It was immediately clear to us that symbolism, as well as functionality, would have been of great importance in the design. In order to meet the strong communicative and symbolic connotations that the project would have had, the project was developed in the shape of a flame rising from the ground to the city, a flame which instead of being threatening, becomes protective, an icon whose simplicity and strength are immediately recognizable to all those who enter or live inside the city. The facade facing bay bridge is designed so that it reflects the city and the bridge, thanks to mirrored glasses in warm colors directly referring to the flames of a fire. In this way one could still imagine to see San Francisco on fire through a mirror and therefore evoke the terrible fire of 1906, in order to be sure that the sacrifice of those who lost their lives will never be forgotten. The tongues of fire representing the architectural complex contain another extremely significant element: a longitudinal element covered with green and trees cutting and breaking the "flame" building. This choice has two fundamental reasons: the first one is functional, because creating a green space inside the building provides areas where firefighters can relax and avert the chaos of the city and the stress of their job when they are not working. The second reason is symbolic, because the flame crossed by greenery represents the firefighters struggling everyday to win the fire for the citizens.