The MM18 Arquitetura office was founded in 2008 by the architects Mila Strauss and Marcos Paulo Caldeira. Known by their actions in divers escales – urban interventions, restaurants and hangars retrofits, stores and corporative spaces – Always seeking to attend the programs in the best way through flexibility in the solutions and projects.
In 2015 the business partners led a project of the new firefighting section, located in front of the main lane of the Guarulhos International Airport, in São Paulo. Being the largest airport, movement wise, in the South hemisphere, with around 40 million passengers a year, the enterprise operates with a higher level of fire prevention in the world, at category 10. The firefighting section was then projected to attend eventualities like large sized aircrafts, like the A380 Airbus, also receiving and store trucks and the latest generation equipments.
The building has an orthogonal with an specialised program around a central courtyard, which is used by the firemen to have trainings in opened air and first aid procedures. In the covered áreas around it’s located in one side: the studying room, living área, library, meeting room, reception, office, auditorium, dining hall and kitchen; on the other side, the technical áreas and storage of materials.
The building also has a gym, that is centrally located with a glass wall, allowing a privileged view to the central courtyard. The firefighting section also has a parking lot and area for refuelling the trucks under the silo. Because of the new flux, it was created a new road between the building and the airport.
17 meters high and painted red, the tower that houses the control house is a highlighted element and calls the attention. Right below it, is located the fuelling slab, with the tanks. In this level there was a greater diversification for materials – the floor, for exemple, is grid.
The tonality that is highlighted in the building is the red, both in the external part and the walls and floor, balancing with the grey of the metallic structure and the cement plates of the closing, choices that are for the aesthetic look, resulted in a work of rapid execution. The opening of the firefighting section was done in 2015.