The origins of the petrol bowser were an add-on to the general store. This one in the alpine region of Victoria. No design considerations for the protection of car or driver when filling up.

Protection from a large porch mismatched in its connection to a house. This one is in Harrington, on the NSW mid-north coast. Traditionally a family-run business – with surfboards as well as Coca-Cola.

The everywhere-prosaic Australian service station. Large and corporately run, more supermarket than fuel station. Wattle Street, Ultimo. No cars – a foretaste of things to come as electric cars take over. Small service stations have largely been absorbed into the urban fabric, so many of them turned into housing (we have done eight).

Two takes on gas stations in Asia. In Singapore, where landscape is everywhere as urban camouflage, much of the site is taken up with planting. The roadside and rear have the planters, reducing the servo to a narrow strip, one car wide at 45 degrees.

In Tokyo space is at an absolute premium. There’s no room for bowsers and curbing. The hose is lowered from the ceiling and retracted after the car is filled. Only possible because the Japanese know how to park.

A 1937 design by Arne Jacobsen in the suburbs of Copenhagen. A modernist icon, with a round roof, rounded corners, and a round clock for Danish efficiency. You want something to last in a dirty environment? Tile it.

In Palm Springs, architect Albert Frey is hailed as a hero. This 1965 longline cantilevered roof (a hyperbolic paraboloid) was his version of a servo, right at the entrance to town. Perfect for later conversion to the visitors' centre. An iconic shape, better suited to selling souvenirs than gas. Replete with USA and California flags.

Helios. A 2007 futurist vision of a servo in the centre of all car life (LA in the USA). Reworking a former Thrifty gas station using the postmodernist, pseudo-botanist sustainable approach.

Designed by Office dA (principal architects Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani) in Boston and Johnston Marklee Architects in Los Angeles. The station's roof is made of triangles of recycled stainless steel with cacti and 90 solar panels.

The granddaddy of all gas station images is a photo titled “Double Standard” by Dennis Hopper. A 1961 shot of a gas station on Route 66, on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and Doheny Drive in Los Angeles. It no longer exists. Worth a look.

There will be obituaries for many more service stations.

We need to preserve and celebrate those with great design flair.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, formerly of Tone on Tuesday. Amateurs draw plans, professionals draw sections – never at cross purposes

Tone Wheeler

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