Petrol stations play a subordinate role in one’s consciousness. Few people pay attention to them unless the petrol tank is nearly empty. At best they are used as a point of reference to guide the way; "Turn left after the petrol station!"  This inconspicuous appearance contrasts with the size of the building and the intrusive neon-lit canopy. The petrol station that at first glance gives the impression of being identical everywhere is apparently easy to be overlooked.
The petrol station has a short history. Before the second world war a building was rarely assigned to a petrol pump. Mostly the pump just stood by the curb or in a yard. But when the petrol pump became a petrol station every effort was made to ensure it became a piece of attention grabbing architecture. Initially that trend continued in the first postwar years, when the station quickly became an everyday appearance. The heyday of the petrol station as an architectural landmark ended in the sixties when the laws of uniform house brand styles were enacted. From that moment on it was no longer the expressive form that made the petrol station recognizable, but the colors and logos that accentuated the distinction between the different brands.
Since this period the petrol station can hardly be seen as architecture. To paraphrase the American design historian Thomas Hine: If architecture can be called frozen music, the petrol station is a frozen jingle. The architecture is thereby reduced from a means to carry the message to the message itself and the shape has continuously eroded until finally the indestructible core of canopy, pump and kiosk remained; the ABC of universal petrol station architecture.