masterthesis

In order to grasp the gas station – a place that symbolizes speed and movement - one has to take time to stop for a moment, to dream away for a while. When the movement is halted, when continuity is interrupted, verticality and meaning are established. Standing still in a place of movement, giving time to something that is usually quickly overlooked, offers the opportunity to go beyond the obvious and to discover the nuances and contra¬dictions of the place. In this thesis the gas station is explored as a phenomenon. Feeling and experience serve as starting points, which allowed to focus on the poetic qualities of a space which at first glance seems to know an exclusively economic logic.
Jules and I started our research with a ten-day road trip, driving from gas station to gas station, collecting images and anecdotes. These served as the basis on which we built our extensive research about the mystical qualities of the gas station. We never tried to define - and by doing so, immobilize - these petrol places; but to gain insight and gain motives.
Along the way we constructed a new way of doing typological research and formulated a general scheme that could be applied to the study of other typologies such as hospitals, schools or social housing.
The scheme is threefold: it presents the terms Myth, User and Form to talk about the type. When we compare this to other definitions of typological research, it is the explicit addition of the Myth where our research distinguishes itself. For the gas station mythology finds its origin in the double isolation of the place, in space and in time, as it forms a discontinuity in the hypnotising on-the-road experience. In the case of the school, for example, myths arise because it is a complete experience for a developing child
The thesis mirrors the triangular theoretical scheme. First, we explore different myths surrounding the gas station. Using coloured collages, combining text and pop-culture references, the reader gets immersed into each myth. Then, we investigated the form of the gas station, vivisecting it into different parts and reflecting on different links with the mythology. Third, follows an analysis of the different types of use and how these users relate to myth and form.
In the conclusion we expand on our vision on type and typological research, comparing it to previous definitions. The argument is post-structuralist and embraces the ambiguity of reality. No attempt is made to discover the 'truth', the research has always been consciously subjective in its essence (our ten-day journey).

This thesis received special recognition by the jury, receiving the Masterthesis Prize in 2022.
The project was exhibited in a still operational gas station, in mach 2022

'Weg-Dromen'
- A search for typology during a stop at the gas station

Masterthesis architecture
in collaboration with Jules Focke
promotor: Bart Verschaffel
mentors: Kris Coremans, Gosia Małgorzata, Hong Wan Chan
2021

some images from the road-trip --->