Wikipedia
Fiat Tagliero Service Station
- Design firm
- Giuseppe Pettazzi
- Typology
- Service station
- Years
- 1937–1938
- Status
- Complete
Facade facts
- Facade summary
- A Futurist facade featuring a central,cockpit-like tower flanked by two dramatic, unsupported 30-meter concrete cantilevered wings.
- Documented intention
- Pettazzi intended to evoke the speed and dynamic mobility of the aviation and automotive industries, embodying the core beliefs of the Futurist movement.
- Street relationship
- The cantilevers project directly over the public right-of-way, dramatically engaging with the surrounding urban streetscape.
- Climate relationship
- The expansive concrete wings function as massive sunshades, protecting the ground-level service bay from intense Eritrean solar radiation.
- Window pattern
- Curved ribbon bands and punched rectangular windows
- Glazing
- Single glazing
- Depth
- Pronounced horizontal depth created by the massive 30-meter projecting wings.
- Rhythm
- Symmetrical, centralized vertical tower anchored by expansive horizontal elements.
- Concrete plaster
- Concrete plaster — Throughout entire concrete structure — Smooth stucco plaster
- Reinforced concrete
- Reinforced concrete — Wings,columns,and walls — Structural core
- Glass
- Glass — Central tower windows — Transparent glass
- Reinforced Concrete Cantilever System
- Monolithic reinforced concrete structure with double cantilevered wings anchored into a heavy central frame.
Tags
- 1931–1940
- A Futurist facade featuring a central
- Africa
- Asmara
- At a major intersection
- BSh - Hot semi-arid
- Cantilevered Canopy
- Commercial
- Commercial service station with offices
- Concrete plaster
- Curved Glass Storefront
- Eritrea
- Futurism
- Giuseppe Pettazzi
- Glass
- Italian Colonial Period
- Punched Windows
- Reinforced Concrete Cantilever
- Reinforced concrete — Wings
- Ribbon Glazing
- Service station
- Single glazing
- Subtropical highland
- Symmetrical
- and canopy
- and walls — Structural core
- cockpit-like tower flanked by two dramatic
- columns
- concrete
- functioning as a focal point monument
- reinforced concrete
- shop
- stucco
Description
The main facade features a central, two-story tower resembling an airplane cockpit. The ground level of the tower is heavily glazed, utilizing a curved glass curtain-wall effect. Radiating from this central core are two massive, unsupported reinforced concrete wings. Each wing measures 30 meters in length and curves slightly upward at the tips, contributing to the aerodynamic silhouette.
Visual analysis
Symmetrical, dynamic, and exceptionally light despite the heavy nature of reinforced concrete, achieved through tapered wing thickness towards the outer edges.
Gallery
Sources
- Asmara: Africa's Modernist City · Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren, Naigzy Gebremedhin