The project transforms the old fire station on Lleida Street, built for the 1929 International Exposition, including it in the cultural network known as ‘Montjuïc, Museum Mountain.’ The original building – the first raised for this purpose in Spain –, included in the Special Protection Plan and Architectural Heritage Catalogue District, was a fire station until 2000 and later became a police station. In 2013 a competition was called to refurbish the building, now converted into a Firefighter Station-Fire Prevention Center.

The project has involved the comprehensive rehabilitation and upgrading of the most important elements of the central inner court and the tower (once used for training and hose drying). The rear shed has been replaced with a new three-story metal structure. The old station had two floors and was built with the techniques of its period: vertical structure of solid brick walls and horizontal metal structure. The roof was held by metallic trusses with a central skylight. The proposal involved the consolidation of the old building and the construction of a new structure eliminating the existing inner wall at the rear of the building’s central atrium. This volume, three stories high, is supported by a metallic curtain wall of steel pillars of 8 x 12 x 0.8 cm every 50 cm starting from a Vierendeel beam, 24 meters long and 2 meters tall, without cross braces and with only two columns at the corners of the perpendicular walls. The intervention has sought greater transparency between the exhibition spaces, mostly using glass with vinyl with different degrees of opacity in the new volume, and through the perforation of the existing inner side walls. Arched windows and doors trace these voids perforated with the use of a delicate method of disk cutting on the side walls.

The main entrance recovers the historic lateral access for vehicles. This option allows a better building organization and the access in the ideal situation regarding the urban network (from the perspective front of Tamarit Street and connecting the building directly with Parallel Avenue. The insertion of the new volume increased the building surface adding two new levels (mezzanine and second floor), allowing a triple sequence of the exhibition space. The tower is recovered as a vertical circulation element and emergency staircase: a vertical hearth, symbolic and functional, allowing greater space economy. The existing roof skylights are removed and the top floor of the new volume opens up to the accessible terraces included in the visit.