Institutionalization of modern imaginery in the gas stations of the ACA-YPF Plan

The schematic design competitions 1936 and 1937

Abstract

In the expansion plan carried out by Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) together with the Automóvil Club Argentino (ACA) from 1936 in Argentina, the architecture of Antonio Vilar played a fundamental role in the definition of the institutional of their image and the installation of a modern architectural morphology associated with the automobile. The paper analyzes the problems and results of significant schematic design competitions for gas stations called by YPF (1936), and ACA (1937), problematizing the question of construction of an identity, in full search of a language for a new architectural program born along the popularization of the automotive. In 1937 Vilar, winner of the ACA competition, received the commission to develop a vast plan of design and construction of stations of various scales, which will be deployed throughout the country in the next six years.
From hemerographic material, the schematic designs presented to both competitions are comparatively studied. The outstanding role of the morphological language used is presented, with an imprint of technical-functional efficiency that fuses adequately with the modern mechanical ideas of the time. Thus, Vilar´s “pragmatic” architecture becomes a fundamental element in the construction of a collective imaginary of strong symbolic charge.