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The Fiat Tagliero Building is a Futurist-style service station in
Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The c ...
,
Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...
. It was completed in 1938 and designed by the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...
Giuseppe Pettazzi Giuseppe Pettazzi (3 May 1907 - 8 October 2001) was an Italian Art Deco and Futurist civil engineer of the 1930s. He built many buildings in Eritrea during Italian colonial rule. They included the Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara Asmara ( ...
.


Historical background

The Fiat Tagliero is noted as one of the foremost
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
buildings of Italian Asmara. Conceived as a simple petrol station owned by dr. Tagliero (the Fiat concessionary in Asmara), the building was designed by eng. Pettazzi as a futuristic structure that resembled an aeroplane incorporating a central tower with office space, cashiers desk and shop — and supporting a pair of huge 15m
cantilevered A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...
, reinforced
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
wings. During construction, local authorities required each wing to be supported by pillars, and original plans, found in 2001, depicted the supports. Pettazzi maintained the supports were unnecessary and reportedly settled the argument by threatening to kill the contractor if the supports were not removed. In the end the supports were removed and the wings held. During WW2 the Fiat Tagliero was partially hit by British bombing, but survived without huge damage: the wings proved to be very well built and did not collapse. The building, used until recently as a
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...
service station, remains structurally sound and has not been damaged during numerous conflicts affecting the Horn of Africa during the second half of the twentieth century. Restored in 2003, the service station is "Category I" listed in Eritrea, meaning no part of the building may be altered: it is one of the most important Art Deco buildings that gave to the city of Asmara the UNESCO approval to be a ''World Heritage Site'' in July 2017.UNESCO: Asmara
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Notes


See also

* Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa (UNESCO World Heritage) *
Giuseppe Pettazzi Giuseppe Pettazzi (3 May 1907 - 8 October 2001) was an Italian Art Deco and Futurist civil engineer of the 1930s. He built many buildings in Eritrea during Italian colonial rule. They included the Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara Asmara ( ...
*
Italian Eritrea Italian Eritrea ( it, Colonia Eritrea, "Colony of Eritrea") was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in 1 ...
*
Cinema Impero The Cinema Impero ( "Empire Cinema") is an Art Deco-style cinema in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It was built in 1937 by the colonial authorities in Italian Eritrea. History ''Cinema Impero'' was the largest movie theater constructed in Asmar ...
, another famous "Art Deco" building in Asmara


External links


Video about Tagliero building
Futurist architecture Transport infrastructure completed in 1938 Italian fascist architecture Buildings and structures in Asmara Shell plc buildings and structures Historic filling stations Modernist architecture in Eritrea 1938 establishments in Africa Aviation art {{coord, 15, 19, 42, N, 38, 55, 33, E, region:ER-MA_type:landmark, display=title