Gas Station/Readings

It seems like there are two groups of people when it comes to every day activity. We have studied and learned about the person who is all about efficiency, who wants a gas station they can get in and out as quickly as possible. The other group of people are those who want some enjoyment and want to relax during their busy days. I agree with both of these groups. I think people can be of one mindset one day and the other mindset another day.

I think refueling the car is a routine. There is the routine of driving up, getting out, paying, fueling, driving away. However, I believe there is something special about a routine that a person can enjoy. In order to keep some sanity during the crazy semesters of schoolwork, I have little routines, like going to church on Sunday and getting my special coffee drink afterwards. I recently went to a ridiculous gas station, Tuscany at 360, and spent a few hours there, noticing that the people coming in to get wine and read the newspaper must do this every week. This coffee shop/wine bar/gas station/convenient store is extremely successful in combining convenience, fuel, and comfort.

I designed my gas stations to have comfort in a social gathering space. The comfort of having a nice space to sit in, with ample light, the best view from the site, and the comfort of being able to see your car. I think that if I am going to spend time in a coffee shop in one of these locations on a major highway, I would like to be able to keep an eye on my belongings and my car if possible. I understand that seeing the gas pumps from where I’m eating my coffee and bagel might make me lose my appetite, so I would like to place the pumps closer to the convenient store, and the parking behind the screen wall. From the outside, the screen could read as a sign for the coffee shop, and the canopy covering the gas pumps could act as an advertisement for the gas. By separating these programs, but still linking them by canopies, there is a successful link between gas and social space, but they are not the same program.

An idea that I haven’t gotten to develop as much yet, is the idea of prefabricated pieces delivered on site and assembled easily. In the readings about the House of the Future and the Dymaxion House and while building Jean Prouve’s Maison Tropicale, I have realized that using a grid that makes all the pieces light enough to put together easily. Prouve used a grid of 3 meters. I have used a grid of 5 feet because 10 feet is wide enough for a car to fit through and 5 feet brings the building to a personal scale. I’m hoping to develop my building method into a grid that will make sense for a car system and make sense for the people to use the social space.

Thinking back to the internal logic of my rest stop, I want the gas station to be a kit of parts on a larger scale. The parts include a screen made out of a grid, and planes for overlapping canopies. In reading about Corbusier’s five points of architecture, it’s clear that I have a similar idea that he had, and he used not only a “kit of parts” or specific building pieces, but he had five points that he followed. I am trying to follow a clear set of points so that my gas stations have a “sameness” to them.