By the end of 2007, the new Civil Protection Center was completed on the outskirts of Innichen in the South Tyrolean High Puster Valley; the building accommodates the local Volunteer Fire Brigade, the White Cross Emergency Medical Service and the Mountain Rescue Service in a common structure.
The project responds to the location on the East-side village entrance and to the small-scale single family housing in the direct surroundings; it is an outpost of the village’s building area which, as is usual, sprawls on the fringes. The fire brigade training is a landmark – a frame for a panoramic view and a welcome sign – an oversized 3-D postcard.
The built volume of the Civil Protection Center is ten times that of nearby houses. In order to lessen this contrast, the building makes use of the natural topography and integrates into the sloping mountainside in the north.
Stretched out alongside the tangential road, the cubature naturally fits into its immediate context.