Stefan Matthys

Present Situation

The inland port area of the Ruhrgebiet is the transport network of the largest industrial
conglomerate in Central Europe (5,000 square kilometres).
The existing harbour fire station of the city of Duisburg is responsible for the entire system,
including a fire-engine for land operations.
The most important site-challenge is the quay with an average difference in height of 9.5 m and
38° slope. The water level changes permanently, but not regularly.

Programme

The equipment is supposed to perform numerous new tasks of the fire station. The following points
have to be requalified:
a lecture room, a lounge, a kitchen, accommodation for four firemen, a workshop, a gym, and a
kitchen garden. Two garages are required for a hook-and-ladder truck and the existing fire-engine.
The two fire-boats get a weatherproof swim-dock. Due to the variable water level, an automatic
height-adaption of the stairs and the lift to the dock is necessary. The fire chief and police
helicopter require a helideck. For fire-fighting missions by air: a catapult-launched fire-aircraft
Canadair CL 215 being accelerated by a Heinkel K3 situated on top, since it takes up to two fatal
hours to get to the operational area by fire-boat.

Anti-Design

The omnium-gatherum of technical solutions was the point of departure for an aesthetic
experiment, dubbed the „fire-extinguishing machine“.
It becomes part of the non-design mobile engine pool of the harbour site.
In order to avoid a demolition whenever it comes out that a site changement is necessary in a
perpetually evoluting harbour area, my proposal is entirely prefabricated, decomposable and
transferable. Moving and removing becomes possible without demolition. It is a prototype. The
assembly takes place in a dockyard, the delivery by crane ship. The assembly principle is taken
from offshore construction.
A provocative and discussed experiment of „more is more”.

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