The headquarters of the Border Police Navy Group – Coast Guard, in the Mangalia marina. The building replaces the old structures, unsuited to the activity, with a modern seat that also answers the local authorities’ request to raise the architectural standard of the port. And for a naval command, PPAE gave the building an identity to match its mission: an architecture that evokes a ship.

Challenges

The brief is that of an operational institution, not a simple office seat: besides the administrative and command spaces, the building integrates specific technical and operational functions, with their own organisation and security requirements. To these is added an essential site constraint: the salt-laden sea air aggressively attacks finishes — the envelope had to be conceived to withstand a high-salinity environment. And, not least, the building had to become a landmark in a marina.

Solutions

The massing openly takes on a naval metaphor. The main body, elongated and clad in light-coloured composite stone, has a slightly curved top edge — the line of a deck — and reads as a hull. At the end, a glazed volume rises and tilts on a cantilever toward the exterior, like the bridge of a ship looking out to the port. The metal railings of the terraces and ramp complete the image of a deck.

The envelope is a ventilated system of dry-mounted composite stone cladding, over thermal insulation, with all exterior finishes chosen for salt resistance — a condition of durability, not just of aesthetics, for a building at the seaside. The forecourt and access stairs are of flamed, non-slip granite.

Result

For the Border Police, a modern operational seat that expresses its very mission in architecture — a ship-building for a naval command — and that raises the standard of the Mangalia marina. For PPAE, proof that an institutional brief, with strict functional and security requirements, can receive a strong architectural identity, durable in a marine environment.

Do you have an institutional investment that must combine strict functional requirements with a memorable architectural identity? The PPAE team can support your project from concept to completion. Contact us