Lempäälä - The World's First Fully Plastic Service Station

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Xochiquetzal
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Lempäälä - The World's First Fully Plastic Service Station

Post by Xochiquetzal » Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:15 pm

Ok, I thought this was really cool. I was driving to Tampere and stopping at sights along the way and decided to go up and see Valkeakoski area. I took a wrong turn and ended up on the old highway to Tampere - and saw this placed and stopped.

.Image

So here's the history I was able to sort of dig up:

On June 18, 1969, along a busy motor road connecting the major cities of Helsinki and Tampere, Gulf Oil opened with great fanfare "Maailman Ensimmäisen Kokomuovisen Huoltoasema" - the world's first completely plastic Service Station.

Lempäälä, the tiny village home of the gas station, has now been passed by as a newer and bigger highway was built a few miles to the East. The little gas station has since fallen into decay - three of the four overhang roofs are now gone or obstructed and much of the plastic has been reclad in brute marine steel.

In hindsight, it should be remembered that by the mid 1970s, the Oil Crisis which had tripled gasoline prices made the manufacture of large scale plastic fabrications such as this building financially unfeasible. The material also could not withstand the extremes of the harsh Finnish climate.

Of the original building, only the uniquely shaped glass panes and the large circular plastic door handles remain. That, and the two lonely images hung in a shabby corner inside the aging coffee area, each poor copies from original advertisements of a long ago era when plastic was the hope for the future.

Ironic, then, that Finland's largest shopping mall would be built in this remote area in 2006 - Idea Park.



Lempäälä - The World's First Fully Plastic Service Station

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Hank W.
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Post by Hank W. » Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:23 pm

If you're into architectural digs, find Tanotorventie in Helsinki ("behind" the Kannelmäki Prisma, west of the Tampere highway) Now Kannelmäki church is your... modern 70's lego, but in the beginning of the road in the corner is a similar design Shell gas station... think its concrete though. However the real treat is a bit along the road on the right. Imagine a concrete eggcarton... as a rivitalo...

BTW that era just before the oil crisis was "Finnish plastic design" heyday...
I'd want one of these...
Last edited by Hank W. on Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mCowboy
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Post by mCowboy » Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:28 pm

It's very far from the Lempäälä centre and almost half way to Valkeakoski. I used to drive by that often when my grand parents lived in Valkeakoski, so I know the old highway quite well.

http://www.luksusblog.com/?p=1028

Apparently it's designed by the same guy as this:


Image


http://www.kiasma.fi/site/pop/pop.php?t ... ang=fi&mo=
Get in there...

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Hank W.
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Post by Hank W. » Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:30 pm

Darn :lol:
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CH
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Post by CH » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:12 am

"Viroon päätynyt Futuro toimi aikaisemmin Lahnajärven huoltoaseman kahvilana ja 90-luvun puolivälissä joulupukin ufo-aluksena."
We used to stop here, when I was a kid, on our way to grandma's. As a kid it was just way too cool! (Well, it still is! :))

Somewhere on the Kemiö island there was a white plastic (I think) gas station, with round corners. If I don't remember totally wrong, it was also by Suuronen. That too was way too cool as a kid (stopped there on our way to my aunt. :))

Edit: Heh, I didn't read properly the text in the link above. :oops: It was a Venturo gas station, and yes, by Suuronen. Here is a link for it: http://www.tuovinen.net/venturo/english.html

CH
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Re: Lempäälä - The World's First Fully Plastic Service Stati

Post by CH » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:32 am

Xochiquetzal wrote:Lempäälä, the tiny village home of the gas station, has now been passed by as a newer and bigger highway was built a few miles to the East. The little gas station has since fallen into decay - three of the four overhang roofs are now gone or obstructed and much of the plastic has been reclad in brute marine steel.
We stopped there once quite some time ago (>10 years?), and it looked already then quite sad. Actually it looks quite nice in your picture, seems like it has been recently painted in ST1 colors (I don't remember what color it was when we stopped).

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Xochiquetzal
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Post by Xochiquetzal » Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:39 pm

Thanks for all the information! I should have known it was a Suuronen special though :)


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