Innovative Architecture Of Gas Stations
1. januar, 2024
The changes brought about by industrialisation have been intensely reflected in people’s lives, architecture, and the development of space itself. Transportation and various vehicles are only a small part of the history of infrastructure. Motor vehicles have altered the course of history more than any other invention! Vehicles are considered part of the technical cultural heritage because of their contribution to scientific and general human value for a variety of reasons: they can be justified for purely fundamental and innovative technical reasons, innovations in form, material development, or other historical facts (e.g., the independence of women). The motor vehicle changed history: its introduction meant not only faster movement and transportation of people and cargo, but also the rapid development of new industries, jobs, and road infrastructure.
“Despite the cold, there is a lot of traffic on the roads. We can get detailed information about this from gas station sellers. Every day, we see lines of cars and motorcycles waiting for their “food” in front of gas stations… In our country, these lines are becoming increasingly long, and as a result, the issue and consumption of fuel are growing by the day. There are indeed differences during the summer months; however, traffic is still active now…” reports the Ljubljana Journal in February 1957. It also states how much fuel is sold at the gas stations on the old Prešernova and Tržaška streets, as well as the gas station in Stožice, which were the three largest gas stations in Ljubljana at the time. They discover that problems arise, particularly when there is no electricity, because they must operate the pumps by hand, “which is time-consuming work.”
After the war, traffic in what was then Slovenia was well-developed, but this was not always the case. Transport routes in our territory only began to emerge in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, the only national road connecting Vienna and Trieste was so poorly travelled that it could take up to eight days to travel the distance. “The roads, which were supposed to be maintained by the provinces, districts, and municipalities,” writes Jasna Fischer in her article Traffic and its Employees in Slovenian Territory from 1869 to 1910, “were not faring any better, and repairs were only begun when economic development was threatened.” Only after the earthquake, during Hribar’s mayorship, did Ljubljana’s transportation infrastructure improve slightly. The first car drove through the city streets in 1898, the first tram in 1901, and there were over a thousand bicycles at the end of the nineteenth century. There were 11 cars and fifteen motorcycles in the Carnolia region in 1904 (registration according to AS, Regional Government, reg. file 13/1, year 1905). For the first time in history, the amount of gasoline produced surpassed the amount of kerosene produced in 1909.
In 1938, Drava Banovina province had 616 kilometres of national roads and 4088 kilometres of Banovina roads that were poorly maintained. There were already 3341 vehicles on the roads in 1939, including 2706 motorcycles, 2306 passenger cars, 126 buses, and 909 trucks (Ficko et al., 2014, p. 584).
As traffic increased, so did the number of mechanic shops, vehicle showrooms, and, of course, gas stations along the roads. Initially, portable pumps were used, which stood in front of taverns and grocery stores. Of course, at night, the owners safely locked the pumps inside. After WWII, stable pumps with underground tanks became popular, and were commonly used in industrial plants.
In 1939, there were 156 gas stations in Drava Banovina, of which approximately 100 were semi-stable and stable, and approximately 50 were portable (Naftno gospodarstvo na Slovenskem, p. 91, Stane Lenarčič, Ljubljana 1993), owned by Standard at 70% and Shell at 30%. Throughout the Drava Banovina, there were approximately 50 private gas stations in the vicinity of Ljubljana. Three of them were in Celje, two in Brežice, one in Novo mesto and two in Gorenjska. In the decade preceding World War II, the first kiosk appeared next to the gas station in Gorenjska, with a cash register and some spare parts or tools. Could these have been the first gas stations as we know them today?
The first gas station in Ljubljana was built in Šentvid, right where the building on Prušnikova street now houses the Stara Pumpa bar. This station, named after the merchant Rozman, has been in operation since 1932, and at the end of the 1930s, a kiosk with motor oil and tools was built next to it. There is now a restaurant there. The roof’s concrete structure and the concrete column are also reminiscent of the old station. During WWII, the first gas station in Celje was built at Šlandrov trg (square). There were two gas stations in operation in Maribor between 1934 and 1945. The Primorska (Slovene Littoral) region relied on Trieste and Rijeka, and the company AGIP, founded after WWI, supplied all of the larger towns in the area.
After the war, the majority of these gas stations were nationalised and became the property of Jugopetrol, the current Petrol. Jugopetrol had seven street gas pumps on May 12, 1945, including one on Gosposvetska street, in Šentvid, and Stožice.
The first large gas station was built in 1953 on Prešernova street, also known as Tivolska street at the time. During those years, a gas station was also built on Tržaška street, next to the Ilirija factory.
The Tržaška gas station still stands almost unchanged today. “Workers from the company “Megrad” began digging the foundations for a gas station in the park near Tržaška street near the tram station “Milarna” in Ljubljana. If the weather cooperates, this gas station, which will be supplied by the company “Jugopetrol,” will go into service on May 1 of next year. It will stock all types of motor vehicle fuel and oil. It will be right next to the main road, separated only by a corridor, a low wall, and a narrow lane with a hedge. There will be special roads for vehicles arriving and departing from both sides of the station. The park will be renovated immediately after the building’s construction so that it does not lose its attractiveness due to the station,” reports the Ljubljana Journal on January 6, 1953. The architect Martin Živič designed the plans for it.
Its form is defined by a mushroom-shaped concrete canopy (approximately 22 m x 13 m in size), around which a series of glass curtains were suspended. The large overhanging roof of the canopy provided shelter for cars while refuelling, a seemingly simple but effective innovation. The interesting thing about these first gas stations from 1953 is that they were the first in Slovenia to be open 24 hours a day.
A unique and often overlooked feature of this building is the 2m wide mural made of coloured tiles that is installed on the north side of the gas station and depicts a map of Slovenia and the surrounding area. Despite the fact that the gas station was built nearly 70 years ago, it has changed very little, as even the mosaic painting with tiles has been preserved to this day. The building is designated as a monument, but we are unable to find any information about it on the site itself.
As we have seen, the earliest gas stations were made in the 1950s, and their basic construction featured straightforward floating roofs atop a basic structure. However, with the development of building technology in the 1960s, it became possible to create large concrete mushrooms in the shape of umbrellas that stood entirely on a single column and offered the best protection and cover for motorcycle riders who sought shelter under the roof. The floating, overhanging structural design pushed the limits of architectural design.
The first “Petrol” gas station in the city was constructed in 1967, just north of the edge of Ljubljana’s city centre at Tivolska 44, not far from the edge of Tivoli Park. The fundamental element of this complex was designed by Milan Mihelič, a Slovenian architect who is currently regarded as one of the foremost representatives of the Ljubljana schools of architecture in the latter half of the 20th century.
Following the war, he studied architecture in Prague as a student of Edvard Ravnikar, and after graduating in 1954, he quickly stepped alongside him on an equal footing with individual architects. His work is distinguished by a well-considered selection of refined floor plans, details polished to design perfection, and planning precision from initial drawings to final execution. His implementations represent the pinnacle of industrial production of individual building materials and elements. In addition to the aforementioned gas station, he is a co-author of the pavilions at the Exhibition and Convention Centre.
It is a completely free-standing concrete canopy (square dimensions: 19 m x 19 m) that is entirely supported by a thick central column. Meanwhile, the canopy’s underside has been artistically designed with a series of organic curves and elegant sculptural touches that give the structure an almost tree-like feel as it floats lightly overhead. The name stuck because of the mushroom shape, and we still use it today, despite the fact that the building is abandoned and waiting for the mercy of a new landlord. This building’s architectural success was so great that it was even written about in German architectural magazines at the time, making it one of the few Yugoslav buildings of this type that was so frequently mentioned abroad.
Opposite it is a gas station designed by architect Edvard Ravnikar (1907-1993), who taught Jože Plečnik and Le Corbusier.
Edvard Ravnikar was able to create modern architecture with a distinct cultural identity that is surprisingly self-evident in the space. It perfectly combines tradition and modernity. It is a 60-meter-long structure made up of three identical concrete umbrellas linked together. The structure is supported by three vertical columns. The central massiveness of the panels thins towards the exterior, giving the impression of a blanket. The layout allows the pumps to be placed diagonally, maximising space utilisations.
Another gas station with a mushroom-shaped canopy of the Petrol brand was built in 1968/69 north of the centre of Ljubljana, opposite the Bežigrad stadium, possibly one of the most ambitious additions to the series of gas stations of the “Petrol” brand. In contrast to the Tivolska 46 facility, which used a single canopy, the Dunajska 70 station used a set of five concrete canopies to create a canopy for the vehicles in this complex. This complex, which was built as a series of linked umbrellas, continued to investigate the possibilities of using architecturally sophisticated floating canopies not only for the convenience of customers at Petrol gas stations, but also as a form of brand recognition for the oil company Petrol, as such innovative structures became a visual synonym for the brand. This complex is still in use today as a Petrol gas station, with the canopies in good condition and little change.
Our capital city was not the only one with interesting gas stations, which were true architectural achievements of industrial heritage. In Sežana, there was once an interesting gas station designed by the architect Božidar Gvardjančič (known as the author of the Šiška cinema projects) in 1954. The newspaper described it as an architectural contribution to the location itself. “He expertly considered the client’s requirements, technical standards, and the needs of the gas station. He created a wide canopy and a simple structure with an open main façade. The architect used simple geometric forms to achieve the airiness of the building’s side walls, which is typical of its era and contrasts with the glass wall of the storefront under the canopy. The wide and heavy roof protects the parking space and is supported by a dynamic framework that is cleverly relieved by diagonally placed load-bearing element supports,” writes Gojko Zupan in the Sunday Republic on July 9, 1995.
Gas stations are an important part of our industrial heritage because they show the evolution of traffic as a place and, as a result, the direct socioeconomic situation of a specific time and place. They played an important role in our motorisation history, and while some have been preserved thanks to monument protection, others have gone unnoticed by the general public or have succumbed to the ravages of time. Even today, I’d be driving by without knowing what I was looking at if I didn’t have parents who are architects and passionate advocates for cultural heritage, who knew how to show me the various stories of our area through the architecture of buildings, bringing history closer to me.
Sources:
Kako so konjske moči izpodrivale konje, Boris Brovinsky, Technical Museum of Slovenia, 2005
Naftno gospodarstvo na Slovenskem, p. 91, Stane Lenarčič, Ljubljana 1993
Various copies of Ilustrirani Slovenec and other newspapers, own archive
Web