There are many stories that make up our lives, and one of the various ways that these stories are recorded is in the spaces that we occupy: the houses, the corners, the streets and the trees; where we live, work, play, cry and laugh. These stories emerge from and develop out of what influences us, this being the society and culture that we live in, and so they are recorded in our spaces for space is both social and cultural. We are spatial story-tellers, explorers, navigators, and discoverers. The buildings in our space emerge from a cultural context; they reflect the social fashions of the time. They do not exist in isolation from us and our stories, and so they are one of the ways in which these stories are told for there is a consistent connection between people, their spaces that they occupy and the cultural worlds in which they live.

The Fiat Tagliero petrol station is an iconic Futurist, with some Art Deco features, building that was built in Asmara in 1938. It was built during the time when Eretria was a colony of Italy, the Fascist Italy led by Mussolini. Also then Italy was in the middle of a war with neighbouring Ethiopia. She wished that this land was her colony, but, despite her massive munitions and fighter jets which dropped mustard gas and other chemical bombs onto civilian communities, her soldiers were soon routed in guerrilla skirmishes with the Ethiopian forces. So for Italy the need to proclaim and to hold onto Eretria as a colony was vital for Mussolini’s and his peoples’ self-esteem and hubris; Italy desired to hold her head high among those in the European community. And so, to show this prowess and supremacy to the world, the Italians sought to make their mark in the one country that was their colony, Eretria. How did she do this? She did it by, among other things, building; by erecting, new, modern and, some would say inappropriate, others exciting and dare devil, buildings. 

Art, and the art of architecture, is defined by the configuration between people; their relationships with each other, and the world. These patterns are reflected in the design of built structures, which in turn are defined by the space and time in which they are created. And so for Italy then the architecture reflected the Fascism of the time; it was mechanical and brutal, it soared over and above a space that was, at face value, gentle and instinctive, a space that she wished to dominate.

Guiseppe Pettazzi: When I was asked to design and build this building, this simple petrol station in Asmara owned by Senor Tagliero, a man who I revere for he is wealthy, and he is a man of principle, he believes in the power of our country and the strength of our leader, Il Duce, he trusts in the potency of the empire, I could not believe it, it is my dream, it is what I dream of always, too build for my country, and to build for the future. Il Duce, my Duce, together we conquer this part of Africa; we will make this Asmara a city so that no-one will ever doubt our prowess. I will make something that forever people will admire.

In 1932 Guiseppe Pettazzi, a twenty five year old Italian architect, was chosen to design the Fiat Tagliero building in Asmara. He was deemed to be too crazy and unorthodox to build in Italy, the place of his birth, where the Fascism of Mussolini, Il Duce, was grasped and carried aloft by most Italians who, following the European depression were poor, leaderless and searching for a saviour. For most Italians Mussolini was their saviour, Fascism brought them a renewed sense of esteem and lifted them out of poverty and so it was embraced, if only for a while. It also saw an Italy which desired to expand to places that were not only a source of wealth but also places where the Italian could impose herself on the land and design, or re-design, it as she pleased for the world, she thought, must want to be an Italian. Countries in Africa were sought after for here new and exciting projects could be engendered. This was particularly noticeable in the sphere of architecture for in the colonies buildings that could not be built in Italy were cherished, supported and encouraged.  And so the brilliant architect, Guiseppe Pettazzi, was shipped off to Eritrea to design and build new buildings that were too risqué for Italy proper, but yet would show Europe that the Italians were powerful embracers of the modern.

Guiseppe Pettazzi: Il Duce, he says we can build as we please, he wants us to experiment, to show the world that we Italians are heroic, here we can build the new, the mechanical and the technological. There will be no more cathedrals to house the Lord, for we will build cathedrals to house new knowledge, to carry on their walls great mechanical birds. Yes, I grasp this project with both my hands, for my country, for me. I will show the world that we are great.

Guiseppe Pettazzi was a Futurist, a movement initially developed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the Italian poet and theoretician, who, in 1909, wrote the “Manifesto of Futurism”. The movement grew quickly for the early twentieth century was a time, many would say, of innovation and the progress, the industrial revolution, colonisation and the development of capitalism. The Futurist movement exalted warfare and embraced the speed and newness of technology; it revered the novel and wished to eradicate the old so as to forge a new civilization from nothing. And so Pettazzi was the perfect architect to design a building that was intended to be a landmark that would represent the inventiveness and excitement of making a conquered land that of the conqueror.

Giuseppe Pettazzi: I grasp at the manifesto of the Futurists, the architecture of the future, this is my guide. Now architecture will make a break with tradition. There will be a fresh start. This building, the design that I create is the architecture of calculation, of audacious temerity and of simplicity; it is the architecture of reinforced concrete, of steel, glass, cardboard, textile fibre, stone and brick. I will create and obtain maximum elasticity and lightness for my building will fly. I will follow my guide, Antonio Sant’Elia. He is dead. He died while fighting gloriously against the Austro Hungarian forces in the last war. He believed, as I do, that the world must be cleansed by warfare, the old order must be destroyed as we build the new. Machines will change the way we live, we must embrace the machine. We will break down the mysterious doors of the impossible. I believe in speed, I believe that we must accelerate the progress that we make; yes, I will build this building so that the empire will always be here, it will be here for our children, not a memory, but a reality, and we Italians will be glorious, we will be held aloft and elevated as are the machines of the sky. This is La Piccolo Roma, and in this city my buildings will make it bigger than Rome itself.

Antonio Sant’Elia is known as the father of architectural Futurism, although he never lived to see his designs built for, at the age of twenty eight, he died in the First European War pursuing what he believed in, the cleansing of the world by destroying it.

Antonio Sant’Elia: No architecture has existed since 1700. A moronic mixture of the most various stylistic elements used to mask the skeletons of modern houses is called modern architecture.

These architectonic prostitutions are welcomed in Italy, and rapacious alien ineptitude is passed off as talented invention and as extremely up-to-date architecture. Young Italian architects flaunt their talents in the new quarters of our towns, where a hilarious salad of little ogival columns, seventeenth-century foliation, Gothic pointed arches, Egyptian pilasters, Rococo scrolls, fifteenth-century cherubs, swollen caryatids, take the place of style in all seriousness, and presumptuously put on monumental airs. No, this is not what we need. We need the kaleidoscopic appearance and reappearance of forms, we do not need those that continue to stamp the image of imbecility on our cities, our cities which should be the immediate and faithful projection of ourselves. We must throw our minds open in the search for new frontiers and in the solution of the new and pressing problem: the Futurist house and city.

Futurism, and architectural Futurism, was a diatribe of relentless forward momentum, and so it was the architecture loved and admired by Mussolini as the architecture for his colonies.

Benito Mussolini: Blood alone moves the wheels of history! THE FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, Gregarious of all the armed forces of the State in Africa and in Italy, Black Shirts of the Revolution, Italians and Italians at home and in the world, listen to the decisions that you will know in a few moments and which were acclaimed by the Great Council of Fascism, a great event takes place: the destiny of Ethiopia and Eretria is sealed, today, May 9th, the fourteenth year of the Fascist Era. ……… And so we need the Irrepressible and disciplined energies of the young, vigorous Italian generations to be there, to make it ours. We are the empire of civilization and humanity for all the peoples of Ethiopia and Eretria. It is in the tradition of Rome, that after winning, they associated the peoples with Rome’s destiny. Italian men and Italian women, you have created with your blood the Empire, fertilized it with your work and defended it against anyone with your weapons.

In 1922, when Mussolini rose to power, he planned a ‘Second Roman Empire’. Asmara was fêted as the seat of Italian power in Africa, and the ideal location to site Italy’s continued invasion of the continent. And so, what at the turn of the century had been a small highland village, in 1939, would be home to over 53,000 Italians; and at least one hundred Futurist and Art Deco buildings.

And so to ‘la Piccolo Roma’ came Pettazzi to build a petrol station for Gino Tagliero, the director of Fiat Asmara, who was a close friend of Giovanni Agnelli, the man who, in 1899, started the Fiat manufacturing company in Italy. The Fiat Lingotto factory in Torino was, until the 1980’s, the largest car manufacturer in Europe. FIAT is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (as translated to mean Italian Automobiles Factory, Turin). The building in Asmara commissioned by Tagliero was therefore not only a strategically placed petrol station, but homage to the Fiat brand. The Agnelli family, and the Fiat company, supported Mussolini and Fascism; they did not only make automobiles but also built aeroplanes and other military machinery for the Italian army, the Regia Aeronautica and later, once Italy was the alley of Germany, for the Germans. Fiat made fighter aircraft, for instance the biplane CR.42 Falco, which was one of the most common Italian aircraft; it also made light tanks and other armoured vehicles. The Fiat Tagliero petrol station in Asmara was built as an architectural tribute to Fascism, but also in deference to the consolidation of Italian power in Africa. Fiat Tagliero was the petrol station for the Italian automobile in Asmara, but it was also designed to show the colony an Italian power that must be revered. Tagliero, although already a wealthy businessman, was also aware that the colonies were the place where fortunes could be made, and he wanted to make more. He was also aware that in Asmara a new Italy was being born, an Italy of heroes and monuments, here was where the aesthetics of the muscular body was worshipped. The architecture of the Futurists which may not have been to everyone’s tastes, honoured this ethos in that it embraced the new, and the colonies were where the new could be produced and released.

For Italy, Ethiopia, the country to the South of Eretria, handed to them at the Berlin conference when Africa was carved up for the European powers, was not secure. In Ethiopia there were constant battles with the Ethiopians who under the leadership of Haile Selassie were determined not to relinquish their country to the Italian. And so Eretria was where the Italians knew they could stay, here they could plant their sword into the fecund earth so that Europe, not so much the indigenous inhabitants of the country, could know that they were world builders, that they had embraced the future, for Italy was the greatest country in the world.

Gino Tagliero in conversation with Giovanni Agnelli: Should I build this building, I am a driver a cars, the car is the future and yet, here I have an aeroplane! I have the money so I can do it. What do I like about the drawings that Pettazzi has presented to me? They are exciting, they are strong, and they show the strength of the Italian who is proud to be in this land. I think that I must do this for with this building I can show my love of Italy, I can show that I too am one who embraces the future. Italy builds aeroplanes, tanks and cars; yes, I must build this building.

Young Italian architects like Pettazzi were encouraged to use Asmara in Eretria as a blank canvas where they could experiment with building form and structure. And in a new city with no strict planning permissions or guidelines to follow, the architects built what they wanted to; and so the city flourished and expanded.

Pettazzi was not disconcerted when confronting the task given to him. Tagliero was wealthy so there was no shortage of money, and he knew that he could build a monument to his client, who would service and sell fiat motor vehicles, the king of the machine, and at the same time he would build a petrol station.

Guiseppe Pettazzi: I will create a petrol station that can fly. Who says that it is only the bird that can fly? We have constructed flying machines and so we, and so I, can design a flying building. And even if this building is for cars, these cars, and those who are in them, will fly. Yes, the site is on a main intersection in the city, this is the major road that leads to the airport. It is the road on which more than a million cars will pass as they move from the airport into the city, into the metropolis. But I will make the cars look upwards towards the sky, the drivers of these cars will hold their hands to their eyes as they will be blinded by the magnificent sun, and by my building that will be on the ground but will reach up so high that some will say it touches the sun; and so as they drive their car they will know, they will believe, that they can fly. And they will fly, I will fly, in this space, they will fly in their dreams as forever this building will be in their dreams. The flying machine is my dream. In this building I will make this dream true, it will be authentic and real; the flying machine that reaches upwards into the future.

For the Futurists the flying machine was the dominant symbol of war, and they sought to cleanse the world through war. The future was a time in which the dull and tedious classicism of the past would be replaced by the new and exhilarating machine; peace would be something desired in the future not the present. It would be a time when the horse was electrified and the cart able to move of its own accord; a time in which the worship of a God would be replaced by the worship of the engine that could rouse and stir a man into a breath-taking frenzy; a time when the only sounds would be modern and roaring and so the new stallions would embraced tracks that lined the cerulean sky, the perfect representation of nature made by man. But this re-creation was also cruel. In 1935 the Italian air force which was made up of more than fifty aeroplanes launched attacks with bombs and with chemicals on Ethiopian villages for they wished to dominate and crush Ethiopia. Flying machines delivered death from the sky, a perfect marriage of modernity and war. And in Asmara the architects delivered buildings to match this cruelty and frenzy. It was the time for Pettazzi to build his dream; a warship flying machine.

The Fiat Tagliero petrol station is located on the corner of Mereb Street and Sematat Avenue. This is a strategic location in Asmara for it is  the intersection between the city and the airport and so a necessary stop when leaving or arriving into the country, And it was on the route that all flying machines, whether they were for commercial transport, tourist travel or war, would fly over. So when looking down from the sky or looking up from the road all would be able to see the Fiat Tagliero building, a concrete machine made by man, the Italian man, freely embracing the technological and the roar of thunderous mechanics.

And so the building was designed and in 1938, two years after building began, it was completed. It was an aeroplane full in flight.

If you face the Fiat Tagliero building, as I am and as the woman wearing the bright lime green abaya and a hijab of the same colour who walks passed it is not for she is faces forward, its wings dwarf and simultaneously embrace both of us.

Samson Haile Theophilos, Eritrean architect: This building, it is huge, monumental for monumental buildings were meant to dwarf you when you go in and emphasize the power of the occupant. You can almost imagine Il Duce striding out from beneath its wings to greet the crowds; he would not need to be above them, for he represents the building which is above them for it flies. The Italians were desperate to build quickly for they needed to show the world that they were indeed the owners of this new country and so the colonial government allowed radical architectural experimentation that would not have found favour in the more conservative European environment.

The woman in the lime green clothing appears, in the photograph, determined to be somewhere else and does not look up at what is often called the finest representation of Italian architectural Futurism. I wonder what she is thinking, maybe what to prepare for supper that evening, or, maybe the speech that she will give to the Asmara local council on the value of these Italian buildings which now are not Italian but Eritrean, and a part of the Eritrean heritage for, not only are they tourist attractions, but are monuments to the skilled workmanship of those that built them.

Samson Haile Theophilos:  I want to stress the workers, skilled and unskilled, were all Eritrean, so we consider this architecture ours. The Italian may have conceived of the designs of the buildings which were difficult to build, and yet we were able to build them.

Or maybe she does not look at it for she remembers the stories her grandfather would tell her of living under Italian rule and so hates everything that the building represents, so she ignores its presence as she walks past. She has to walk along this street every day, but she does not like it.

Zeray Kidane Mariam who is 101 years old: I remember well all this building around 1935 when so many Italians were coming and they were preparing to invade Ethiopia. But they did it for themselves. We were forced to live in poor areas. To them we were just niggers, nobodies. Do I like it, no I do not.

The Fiat Tagliero Building reflects a paradoxical history. For some, it was a showcase for European excellence, ingenuity and skill, for others it represents a memory of persecution and cruelty; it shows what was, and what is, it is a bequest and a legacy? But as I walk up to the entrance of the central tower I know that many have walked there before me, the feet of others have polished the white cement and reshaped its colour, brown fingers marks grasp at the two front cement columns. It is a testimony to movement and the progress of time.

The building is built to look like an aeroplane about to take off. It is geometrically simple. There is a central structure, it is both rounded and yet square, and although it is vertical, and higher than one floor it appears to be horizontal in that it does not sweep into the sky or reach upwards, but rather it allows me to look at it as if it is already moving, moving along a runway that soon, when it has sufficient power, will take off into the sky and move beyond what is human for as it leans over me, hulking, a colossal edifice, I am aware that despite it not being tall, it is superior to anything that may be on the ground.

The central tower is triangular in that they ground floor is wider than the floor above it and, although it does not end in a point, it narrows as it extends higher. The central structure has a middle area which is rounded, while the sides are straight and squared. This central component of the building is flanked by the extensive cantilevered wings. The wings protrude outwards at the height of the first floor. At the front of the central tower is a concrete extension that overlaps and overlooks the ground. This is held up by four round enormous columns that are built to the level of the wings so giving the entrance shade but also creating an imagined picture of the front area of an aeroplane. There is a band of wrap around windows; these are long horizontal windows that are of equal height and which stretch across the middle area of the building on the ground and first floors, but which also stretch higher into the tower and beneath the roof. The glass of the windows is separated by vertical steel mullions so as vision, when looking from them, is cut up. The windows form a continuous band across the central structure of the building on both the ground and first floors. The mullions are a decorative, albeit hard feature, an embellishment to what would be merely glass, but also a symbol of Futurist architecture in that the eye, a human component, will never see things in their entirely, only a machine can do this, and so should a person look out from these windows what is seen will always be broken up; the outside is fractured and fragmented, as is the human condition. The surfaces of the walls of this central area, or tower, are smooth and white and in it is space for offices and shops.

Above the second floor is the word Fiat, it is coloured orangey brown, but with a hint of gold and is written in an ornate elongated script. This single word hovers above, or possibly is held by, a fork shaped sign that, depending upon how you look at it or how you move your head, seems to be a tongue of fire that leaps upwards. The fork shape is used in Futurism as an emblem of power but also of the home, it can be used to stab or kill another, or another’s ideas, but it can also be placed on the dinner table by a mother, the nurturer and keeper of the household. And as the building is built on a cross road, so the fork is also the symbol of such a road, or the symbol of choice. Above the word Fiat, which is carved in the Roman or Latin script, is the word Fiat in Amharic, here there are three, in what a person who does not know this script would say, signs. The Italians wished to show all that they were not an ungenerous people. This was their colony, they did not only wish to make the place their own, but they wished to share their knowledge, understanding and sophistication with those whom they had colonised, they too could become like their conquerors.  And above this and on either side of the Amharic lettering are two thinner pieces of concrete, they look as if they are steel fencing foils. These two thin edifices project above the roof line of the building and point, almost reach, upwards, seeking the ever blue that is heaven, and piercing it so that it remains hovering, there will be no further movement, the sky is captured.

The overall design of the building is based on ideas of contrast and linearity. The central tower is the main body that ends in thin pinnacle, it is a  version of a Gothic cathedral but at the same time is cutting-edge Futurist architecture. This solid body contrasts with the gigantic horizontal wings that are completely free from any visible structural support. Another contradiction is that the building is heavy; it is built in reinforced concrete, but also seems light in that is shaped like an aeroplane ready to take off from the rootedness of the earth. This building complies with the architectural rule of three, while not typical of Futurism, but more so of the Art Deco movement, of which there are many examples in Asmara. There is a round central structure and on either side are replicated squared extensions.

The central structure of the building is the body of the aeroplane, the cockpit and the space which into which either visitors, bombs or soldiers enter. This part of the construction supports a pair of gigantic, cantilevered, reinforced concrete wings; they are fifteen metre in length, or thirty metres in their entirety. The Fiat Tagliero building flies in a surreal firmament and swoops high above the clouds; magnificent, controlling all that surrounds it. It flies, not like a bird, but a bird like machine a symbol of innovation and the power of Fascism that culminates in a cleaning war.

The Fiat Tagliero building is an audacious design that stunned the sceptical municipal authorities who were unconvinced of Pettazzi’s calculations as to the load bearing capacity of the central tower, and whether it would be able to hold aloft such long cantilevered wings, and so, in accordance with Italian planning regulations, insisted that the wings be supported by columns. As the building was erected giant wooden supports were used to hold up the reinforced concrete wings as they were extended beyond and held to the central tower. Once the building was complete they would, the authorities decided, not be removed. Pettazzi, however, was both an architect and an engineer; he believed in himself and his engineering as well as his architectural skills, and so knew that he had calculated the weight bearing ability of the central tower to the last detail, the wings would not collapse. The upright wooded struts would be removed and nothing would stand in the way of this removal.

On the day when the building officially declared open, and so usable as a petrol station and offices, the Italian building officials were adamant that the wooden pillars should not be removed, they were afraid that the wings would collapse and so months of work would be destroyed and many lira lost, however the confidence of Pettazzi stunned the onlookers when, demonstrating absolute faith in his design by standing on the tip of one wing he pulled out a gun. There are many stories of this moment, and memory changes stories so what was real can never be certain. Some say Pettazzi stood defiantly on one of the fifteen metre concrete wings of the building and threatened to kill himself should the structure collapse as the wooden supports were pulled away. In another, the architect held the gun to the head of an Eritrean builder as he hesitated to pull away the struts for fear the long slabs would tumble down.

Whatever Pettazzi did or said convinced the authorities to give the go ahead to the workers to remove the wooden columns. They did and the wings stayed up. Nobody was shot, and Pettazzi’s design skills were vindicated. Seventy years later, this astonishing and exceptional piece of Italian Futurism that resembles a plane at take-off, is still standing.

Guiseppe Pettazzi: We Italians are Masters of design, we believe in the machine and its power. I am the Master, the leader, an engineer and architect. My design will stand forever; it is a monument to our glory. Get out of the way. Pull the beams from beneath the wings of my creation. I will stand up here until you do so here, pull them away, pull them out. Take care, I will not hesitate to shoot, first someone, you there, you, my builder who I trust, then I will turn the gun to my own head. Take them away. I will watch my building fly even if it kills me, but I will not die for I know what I have achieved. You all know that we can fly, I said take them away.

Yonas Haile, an Eritrean builder: He looked wild, he just stood there. I have been on this building site for many months now and I have never seen him this wild. Yes he was a wild man, but I have never seen him this wild. I was afraid, afraid that he would shoot, me, shoot Ferte, my friend who built with me, shoot himself. And so we talked to the others who were taking the columns down. And they did. And the wings did not fall. 

A building will always tell a story; but the Fiat Tagliero is also a story in itself. It acts, it gives a social performance, it is, and will be, a demonstration of the hubristic excessiveness of man in defiance of the Gods. The columns, windows and cantilevered wings of the building are engaged in a show, a concert of dance and flight. The building stands on its own stage, an animated theatre that shows the might of the Italian and the resilience of the Eritrean.