Festive opening fire station Dirk

On Thursday 8 June, the Dirk fire station was festively opened. This fire station is the oldest (still operating) barracks in Europe, and has been restored. Fire station Dirk on Honthorststraat was built in 1870 in the style of the Rijksmuseum. The monumental building was taken into use as a fire station in 1897 and was designed by city architect Hendrik Leguyt. The building is detached and has three storeys, one of which is placed under a transverse gable roof with dormer windows in simple neo-Dutch Renaissance style. The foundation is an Amsterdam wooden pile foundation and a concrete slab floor was installed on new piles in the building at a later time to support the fire trucks.

The implementation was done by Restauratie Bouwbedrijf Koninklijke Woudenberg During the redesign of the barracks, a lot of energy was put into restoring old elements, with the entire building becoming natural gas-free and receiving energy label A. For example, beautiful brick walls with ornaments have been removed from behind a layer of stucco and a piece of history is visible again.

The interventions for the structure are broadly as follows:

• Realizing wall breakthroughs on the ground floor and the 1st floor. Realizing recesses in the 1st, 2nd and roof floors for new shafts, stairs, etc.
• Closing both wall and floor recesses. Checking the existing wooden beam layers of the floors and roofs for the new use function and/or adding weight in connection with the construction. for example solar panels, and if necessary specifying the constructive facilities.
• Assessing openings that pass through structural elements.