The Decommissioned Petrol Station in Piazza Manno in Oristano (Italy)

In Italy, the birth of fuel stations certainly includes among its pro- tagonists the Milanese architect Mario Bacciocchi. Starting from the early 1950s, he designed for Enrico Mattei’s ENI several typified structures destined to become a real icon in the Italian roadside landscape. Over and above the high performance level required by different functions and activities carried out in the new gas stations, architectural design was aimed at what we would now call “brand awareness”, targeted to facilitate easy recognition and identification of the brand and of the services associated with it. The image of the new structures becomes an essential component in the strategic business objectives of oil companies, providing visibility and ensuring accessibility of the service area. In addition to the typed projects carried out in series, Bacciocchi elaborates several projects addressed to solve particular needs related primarily to the peculiarity of the site and the morphology of the area, while maintaining the brand’s dis- tinctive features unchanged. This is the case of the Agip petrol station in Piazza Manno, one of the so-called “special types” designed by Bacciocchi. In several cases, petrol stations have now been lost, while the remaining buildings are sometimes disused and abandoned heritage that deserve our attention. In fringe areas, as in the case of piazza Manno, the reuse of these architectures can even offer the opportunity to trigger urban regeneration processes. Architectural survey as a project of knowledge defines the first founding step aimed at an appropriate graphical and visual documentation of this heritage.