Vitra Fire Station, Weil am Rhein

The building forms the end point of the main axis of the company premises and with a slight curvature it marks the change of direction to the back part of the site. The functions of the building to define space and seal off from the exterior were the starting point for the development of a concept of a linear succession of walls which are disturbed by the "movement" of fire engines.

A crystalline "splintering" of individual spatial areas in the interior of the building was the much admired consequence. Since the mid 90s Hadid has turned away from a crystalline use of form more and more towards an amorphous use of form. An example of this here is her installation "Domestic Wave"; however, transparency, mobility and lightness are the qualities remaining which one spontaneously connects with her buildings.

Asked about this supposed impulse by the Frankfurter Allgemeine journalist, Belinda Grace Gardner, Hadid answered, "Even with a small project like the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein the space was organised in a flowing way so that you get a variety of views through it. That is a guiding principle of my designs: transparency is not only a question of material. It also depends how the space unfolds as you move through it. You can compare it to seeing a film several times. Everybody sees it differently and discovers new aspects of their own on repeated viewing. The place, the frame remains the same. It's just that the eye jumps around in a different way inside it. With my designs I try to make possible this non-linear experience of space" (FAZ, 16.03.2001)