Niittykumpu Fire Station

Although a relatively small building, Niittykumpu Fire Station with its tower stands out as a landmark along the Merituulentie road in Espoo. A line of fire engines on standby are visible behind the sliding doors of the glazed front facade. Behind them, in the vehicles hall, are the fireman’s poles enabling rapid descent from the upper floor. The tall vehicles hall is built of steel, while the adjoining two-storey section is based on a system of steel columns and cast-in-situ concrete. The two-storey section comprises workshops, changing rooms and the property manager’s residence on the ground floor, and the emergency call centre and firemen’s rest and training facilities on the upper floor.

Among his projects, Niittykumpu Fire Station is one of Kairamo’s finest achievements. He was inspired by the intensity of firefighting, and the starting point of the design was to minimize the time it takes from hearing the alarm to starting up the emergency vehicles. Movement and speed are key elements in Erkki Kairamo’s architecture: the tower and the pole leading from the firemen’s social spaces to the ground level are vertical motifs, while the forward rush of fire engines is horizontal. Kairamo said that he usually visualizes a building’s overlapping floors in his head before starting to draw. He saw the various entities as processes – notably evident in his designs on a larger scale for paper mills.

The architecture of the fire station is based on dynamics and refined details. The impression created brings to mind the post-revolution Constructivist architecture of the Soviet Union. Architect El Lissitzky (1890–1941) has been mentioned as one inspiration for the building. In his design language, Kairamo used steel as a colourful and light contrast against the backdrop of the box-like concrete, brick or slab structures. Steel also appears as a secondary structure or purely as a decoration, in Kairamo’s own words, “fluff”. The fire tower is no longer used for drying hoses in the traditional way, but it still offers a place for ladder, rescue, climbing and fire-equipment training. The tower’s open steel structure is flexible in terms of use. Highest up in the tower is the fire station’s large code number, as well as technical equipment such as a windsock, anemometer and antenna. Bright colours, blue and red, emphasize the dynamism of the spiral staircase and protrusions.

After its completion in the 1990s, the fire station was published in several magazines and books, both in Finland and abroad. The use of the fire station, protected in the town plan, was came to an end in the summer of 2023, when the new fire station was completed in Matinkylä. A new use is being sought for the fire station.

Aino Niskanen

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Brandolini, Sebastiano (2000). Gullichsen, Kairamo, Vormala. Architecture 1969-2000. Milano: Skira.

Kairamo, Erkki and Saarelainen, Tapio (1987). ”Niittykummun aluepaloasema, Espoo”, Arkkitehti 3/1987, pp. 24–27.