Bespoke Shell Petrol Station

The Journey_ The wild scenery of Attica, with its rocky hills and olive trees, on the way to the busy port of Lavrio, is the site of this ” bespoke” Shell petrol station. Rejecting the prefabricated images of Shell petrol stations chains, that are brought directly to a site, while ignoring its characteristics, was the original source of the idea for a custom-made space that allows the User to be an active participant with the surrounding nature. The building was conceived in such a way that time, porosity, movement, transparency, and materiality were the starting points for spatial exploration.

Time_ The journey engages time: a quick time of simple petrol filling, an intermediate that allows for using shower, shop, and toilet facilities and finally a slow time, having a coffee-break, while contemplating car-washing experience on a cafeteria platform.

Porosity_ Landscape is created on two levels, embracing the platform of cafeteria: a green soft floor under the platform and in front of the “screen” on the level 0,00 and a high-raised garden (the roof of the back toilets on the level +3,20). The building blends with the surrounding nature featuring Mediterranean plants mint, lavender, and rosemary.

Movement & transparency_ From the regular geometric volume, at three sides of the building were abstracted smaller volumes:

1. A main entrance area creating a contemporary “Palladian” portico.

2. Back toilets that feature a roof garden on the top and which create a high-raised semi-atrium bringing the view of the garden to the interior space of cafeteria.

3. A cafeteria platform that penetrates the southern part of the building, partly covered with concrete slab and partly with transparent pergola in metal “I-beam” profiles.

4. An ‘in-between” space that connects and divides the main building with the washing, cleaning, and oil-changing area.