Roland Baldi, infrastructure protecting the environment

Roland Baldi is an architect from the Italian province of South Tyrol who designed the new barracks for the Fleres Fire Department in the City of Brennero. Architecture based on the symbiosis of nature and infrastructure, which is also a design element required to protect the environment of an avalanche-prone territory.

The Roland Baldi architecture firm in Bolzano was appointed to design the new barracks for the Fleres Fire Department in the City of Brennero, which became operative in late September.The barracks building is divided into two areas - the vehicle garage and the administrative zone with the service facilities - and nestles into the retaining wall of a mass of detritus on the valley floor, looking over Val di Fleres. 

Roland Baldi opted for clear, sleek formal language and selected very few materials - stone, glass and aluminium. The especially eye-catching building facade looks like an extension of the mountain, because they are made from customised gabions filled with the detritus from the site. A design solution that both strengthens the ties between building and site, and stresses how design that is attentive to the context can become part of the environmental protection.

The barracks for the Fleres Fire Department by Roland Baldi is an architectural project that reaffirms the great attention that this award-winning architect from South Tyrol pays to the natural environments that accommodate his designs, where a contemporary take on engaging with the environment is not only a key feature but also an active contribution to looking after the territory. 

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Roland Baldi Architects http://www.archbaldi.it/de/
Location: Val di Fleres, Italy
Year: 2015
Images: © Oscar Da Riz – courtesy of Roland Baldi Architects
More articles: http://www.floornature.com/blog/technoalpin-head-offices-by-roland-baldi-architects-and-vwn-architects-10063/