Indoor shooting range of the German Police Force
The requirements for the German Police Force to defend against dangers to the public safety and order have steadily risen in the last years and protection from extremism and terrorism have become key issues. As a result, the concept “Polizei 2020” of the Interior Ministry of Saxony demands a strategic handling of resources and a constant qualification of the workforce in order to deal with the changing challenges such as extremism, terrorism and cross-border criminality. The new indoor shooting range for the Police Department of Dresden is a central element for the professional education and specific training to prepare workers both theoretically and practically for real assignment situations.
The new building for the Police Force of Saxony in Dresden is targeted toward a holistic training concept in consideration of all tactical assignment aspects and legal foundations. Above and beyond the shooting training a focus is placed upon an approach that is justified by the situation in which the weapon is the “ultima ratio”. Alongside the fundamental training with the use of the gun a particular emphasis is placed upon recreating assignment situations, which are as close to reality as possible. The visual and constructional robustness of the new building are closely related to this.
The allocation of the building volumes is divided into two equally sized single floor buildings whose central address is a courtyard. Hereby the pure shooting training (RSA) is physically separated from the areas dealing with assignment training and integrated further education (IF). This physical separation creates concentrated conditions for schooling and isolates the use of sharp shooting weapons from the “stress test” in recreated daily scenarios of police work. A foundation that runs throughout the complex serves as a physical binding element that brings the two separate volumes together as a single building. The detailing of each façade reflects interior usage – the introverted usage of the RSA building is closed on three sides and only opens itself through the offices of the shooting trainers to the central courtyard. The usage of the IF is open on three sides to let daylight in with windows to the surrounding campus.
The photographic documentation by the photographer Tomasz Lewandowski was supported by a theatrical ensemble from Dresden in order to recreate specific usages. Costumes were chosen consciously in contrast to the usual daily police uniform in order to clearly differentiate between these amateur interpretations of possible usage scenarios and real professional police work.
