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29 May 2026
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Fire stations of the world: Fire Station No 4, Zaragoza, Spain
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Fire Station No 4 is a contemporary emergency facility located on Avenida de Zaragoza in the Casetas neighbourhood of Zaragoza in Spain. Designed by the architecture firm IDOM, the 1 245-square-metre complex operates 24 hours a day to serve Casetas and its surrounding municipalities. Located on a publicly owned plot next to the Casetas municipal swimming pools, in a well-connected area, allows speedy emergency exits. Working 24 hours a day, this facility attends emergency situations that may occur in area 4, which includes the neighbourhoods of Casetas, Garrapinillos, Monzalbarba and Alfocea, as well as the surrounding municipalities, Utebo, Torres de Berrellén or Sobradiel, among others.
This new amenity is developed mainly on the ground floor, housing the different living quarters, changing rooms, communication centre, bedrooms, gym, etc. On the upper floors and on the roof, there are small rooms for installations and a warehouse that configure a tower and which completes the complex as an iconic element that integrates the communications antenna.
The Tower houses all the infrastructures and installations of the centre, so that the rest of the building's roof is free of any type of installation, being conceived as the fifth façade of the project.
The distribution of spaces and dimensioning of uses responds to functional criteria and conditions in which the operations of the Fire Brigade and the requirements of the Fire Rescue and Civil Protection Service draw an orderly plan around a central space that provides natural light and ventilation. This central area is made up of a courtyard and a gymnasium that materialise in a continuous space that acts as the real lung of the building.
The apparatus bay joins the service spaces and other uses through a courtyard that articulates and orders the building. It opens onto the manoeuvring yard, in connection with the Avenida de Zaragoza roundabout, from which there is quick accessibility to the Casetas neighbourhood and the adjacent industrial areas.
The courtyard is located in a central position, on the ground floor and acts as an articulating piece, a space that allows us to understand the operation of the building as a whole. Circulation spaces develop around the courtyard, constantly causing the relationship between infrastructure spaces, service spaces and vehicle parking bays, with emergency vehicles appearing as the backdrop for gym activities and administrative rooms and control.
The site in which the designed building is located has a rectangular geometry, 70 metres wide by an average of 115 longitudinal metres. Its total area is 8 000m². On the site, an L-shaped building with a total area of 1 245m²has been built, of which 523 correspond to the vehicle garage and 722m² are for office use and living quarters. The Plot is located at the western end of the Casetas urban neighbourhood in Zaragoza and has a depression of approximately 1 metre below the grade of the main access road. It occupies a non-dominant position, in a depressed area destined for neighbourhood amenities. The building responds to this circumstance with a towering height volume. The Tower is crowned with a telecommunications antenna that guarantees the efficiency and independence of the emergency service.
The Needs Program required service spaces, bedrooms, toilets and changing rooms, which were related to the main spaces intended for the administrative management of the station, materials storage and the storage and parking of emergency vehicles. This program was complemented by a gym and a dining room that had to be located on the ground floor, as well as an outdoor space for parking and the circulation of heavy vehicles, which allowed the correct access and exit of emergency vehicles. An overhead telecommunications antenna and emergency generator along with the facility’s specific installations, completed the needs program.
The fire station is made up of three volumes of different heights, which allow different uses depending on their typology. Each one has different accesses for pedestrians or for vehicles and they are interconnected through the courtyard and the Tower staircase.
Volumetrically, the building can be explained as a plinth that gathers all the circulations and services, on which two volumes rest, the volume of the Tower and the volume of the garage that manages emergency vehicles.
Most of the building is developed on the ground floor, where the different spaces integrated into an impression of unity. The materials of the facade harmonise the whole, creating a volumetric game in which the different uses are combined.
Photos: Iñaki Bergera
Sources: Archello, IDOM Architects, Metalocus
This new amenity is developed mainly on the ground floor, housing the different living quarters, changing rooms, communication centre, bedrooms, gym, etc. On the upper floors and on the roof, there are small rooms for installations and a warehouse that configure a tower and which completes the complex as an iconic element that integrates the communications antenna.
The Tower houses all the infrastructures and installations of the centre, so that the rest of the building's roof is free of any type of installation, being conceived as the fifth façade of the project.
The distribution of spaces and dimensioning of uses responds to functional criteria and conditions in which the operations of the Fire Brigade and the requirements of the Fire Rescue and Civil Protection Service draw an orderly plan around a central space that provides natural light and ventilation. This central area is made up of a courtyard and a gymnasium that materialise in a continuous space that acts as the real lung of the building.
The apparatus bay joins the service spaces and other uses through a courtyard that articulates and orders the building. It opens onto the manoeuvring yard, in connection with the Avenida de Zaragoza roundabout, from which there is quick accessibility to the Casetas neighbourhood and the adjacent industrial areas.
The courtyard is located in a central position, on the ground floor and acts as an articulating piece, a space that allows us to understand the operation of the building as a whole. Circulation spaces develop around the courtyard, constantly causing the relationship between infrastructure spaces, service spaces and vehicle parking bays, with emergency vehicles appearing as the backdrop for gym activities and administrative rooms and control.
The site in which the designed building is located has a rectangular geometry, 70 metres wide by an average of 115 longitudinal metres. Its total area is 8 000m². On the site, an L-shaped building with a total area of 1 245m²has been built, of which 523 correspond to the vehicle garage and 722m² are for office use and living quarters. The Plot is located at the western end of the Casetas urban neighbourhood in Zaragoza and has a depression of approximately 1 metre below the grade of the main access road. It occupies a non-dominant position, in a depressed area destined for neighbourhood amenities. The building responds to this circumstance with a towering height volume. The Tower is crowned with a telecommunications antenna that guarantees the efficiency and independence of the emergency service.
The Needs Program required service spaces, bedrooms, toilets and changing rooms, which were related to the main spaces intended for the administrative management of the station, materials storage and the storage and parking of emergency vehicles. This program was complemented by a gym and a dining room that had to be located on the ground floor, as well as an outdoor space for parking and the circulation of heavy vehicles, which allowed the correct access and exit of emergency vehicles. An overhead telecommunications antenna and emergency generator along with the facility’s specific installations, completed the needs program.
The fire station is made up of three volumes of different heights, which allow different uses depending on their typology. Each one has different accesses for pedestrians or for vehicles and they are interconnected through the courtyard and the Tower staircase.
Volumetrically, the building can be explained as a plinth that gathers all the circulations and services, on which two volumes rest, the volume of the Tower and the volume of the garage that manages emergency vehicles.
Most of the building is developed on the ground floor, where the different spaces integrated into an impression of unity. The materials of the facade harmonise the whole, creating a volumetric game in which the different uses are combined.
Photos: Iñaki Bergera
Sources: Archello, IDOM Architects, Metalocus
