Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station
Hiroshima, Japan · 2000
Photo · Tomio Ohashi
A precedent for high-tech, transparent civic architecture featuring an exposed steel circulation system, glass-walled offices, and vibrant red accent volumes within a multi-story atrium.
- What we like about this project
- A horizontal safety net is strung across the open atrium space between catwalk levels.
Materials
- steel
- glass
- grating
- wire-mesh
- painted-steel
Visual identifiers
- steel-grating-catwalk
- diagonal-staircase
- glass-walled-offices
- red-accent-walls
- safety-netting
Style tags
- high-tech
- structural-expressionism
- industrial-minimalism
Visual tags
- high-tech
- transparency
- vertical-atrium
- exposed-circulation
- structural-expressionism
- civic-architecture
- Geometry
- A complex, multi-layered vertical atrium defined by a rigid orthogonal steel grid, intersected by diagonal steel staircases and horizontal catwalks.
- Facade system
- Interior glazed partition walls and perimeter glass curtain wall.
- Structural guess
- Steel moment frame with integrated steel grating floors and suspended catwalks.
- Spatial scale
- Large-scale, multi-story public or institutional atrium with human-scaled circulation paths.
- Lighting
- Bright, diffused daylight filtering through perimeter glass facades, casting soft shadows through the metal grating and mesh floors.
- Atmosphere
- Industrious, highly organized, and visually open, emphasizing functional transparency.
- Environmental context
- An indoor, multi-story atrium of a civic building with glimpses of office activity and outdoor light.
- Spatial experience
- Highly transparent and porous; views penetrate through multiple floor plates, glass-walled offices, and open steel grating, creating an intense sense of visual connectivity and vertical movement.
- Composition rhythm
- The strict vertical and horizontal grid of the steel structure is dynamically interrupted by the strong diagonal lines of the staircases.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Structural Expressionism
- Program
- Fire station or civic administrative building
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- steel, glass, grating, wire-mesh, painted-steel
- Visual identifiers
- steel-grating-catwalk, diagonal-staircase, glass-walled-offices, red-accent-walls, safety-netting
- Style tags
- high-tech, structural-expressionism, industrial-minimalism
- Visual tags
- high-tech, transparency, vertical-atrium, exposed-circulation, structural-expressionism, civic-architecture
- Geometry
- A complex, multi-layered vertical atrium defined by a rigid orthogonal steel grid, intersected by diagonal steel staircases and horizontal catwalks.
- Facade system
- Interior glazed partition walls and perimeter glass curtain wall.
- Structural guess
- Steel moment frame with integrated steel grating floors and suspended catwalks.
- Spatial scale
- Large-scale, multi-story public or institutional atrium with human-scaled circulation paths.
- Lighting
- Bright, diffused daylight filtering through perimeter glass facades, casting soft shadows through the metal grating and mesh floors.
- Atmosphere
- Industrious, highly organized, and visually open, emphasizing functional transparency.
- Environmental context
- An indoor, multi-story atrium of a civic building with glimpses of office activity and outdoor light.
- Spatial experience
- Highly transparent and porous; views penetrate through multiple floor plates, glass-walled offices, and open steel grating, creating an intense sense of visual connectivity and vertical movement.
- Composition rhythm
- The strict vertical and horizontal grid of the steel structure is dynamically interrupted by the strong diagonal lines of the staircases.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Structural Expressionism
- Program
- Fire station or civic administrative building
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture