Gas & Service Station Gon - Architects José Pablo Vázquez Hierro, César Morales Cuesta - 2002

According to its authors, “The criterion underpinning this project is the non-assumption of preconceptions, returning to the primary causes – programme, external conditions, materials – to create a project in which each element is defined by its own rationale.

Based on a plot with clearly converging boundaries, the response to this determining condition is the disposition of a large roof to unify the project, shunning the juxtaposition of the built volume and canopy; beneath this roof and at the rear of the plot, the construction will adopt the form of a piece of furniture, with a structure comprising a diaphanous, open section at the front to accommodate the shop and a raised payment area, plus another more opaque split-level section at the rear with toilets on the ground floor and the changing rooms and office on the mezzanine.

Expressed in this way, the work appears before the observer exactly as it is: the structure (in the compositional sense, which in this case largely coincides with the physical structure) appears bare and the materials – concrete, steel, glass and limestone – are what they appear to be.” (Huelva: An Architectural Guide)