Who does not love the filigree projecting concrete roofs of old petrol filling stations? One particular style – the Agip filling stations of the 1950's – awakens in many a yearning remembrance of their first holiday in Italy. At that time, the filling station was deemed to be totally "chic". People drove there not just to fill up with fuel but to drink an espresso at the bar as well, and to lap up modern flair. It was not rare to find families who made the station's "ristorante" the goal of their Sunday outing in a brand new Cinquecento. The exhibition "Agip – Filling station for an economic miracle" displays not merely the architecture but also the culture and attitudes towards life in a time of motorised upheaval by means of numerous historical photographs and other contemporary documents.

Credit is due to the Italian Agip mineral oil group for having introduced a semantic change in filling stations in Europe – away from an inhospitable place characterised by pure functionality over to a cosmopolitan meeting place offering shopping and gastronomy besides fuel. This has also left its traces on terms of speech. The filling station was originally called "stazione di rifornimento" (filling station); in the fifties, this was elevated to a more noble "stazione di servizio" (service station). The novelty of the concept that Agip was proposing at the beginning of the 1950's was to couple filling station architecture to the concern's corporate identity. Parallel to the development of a logo that was to become well-known throughout the world – the fire-spitting dog with six paws – Enrico Mattei, chairman of the board of Eni, the Agip parent company, drew up a prototype for a standardised filling station. From the small kiosk for inner-city areas, via a medium-sized filling station with bar right up to giant filling stations with restaurant area along great traffic arteries like the "Autostrada del Sole", all types conform to the same parameters. The architecture with its dynamic upwardly flowing flying roof caused the building to stand out clearly from afar as an Agip filling station. The high recognition value made the filling station into a striking architectural trade mark. During the subsequent decade, a great expansionist drive brought hundreds of filling stations into being all over the place. These were to function as the company's ambassadors in expressing modernity and progress. And it was a highly conspicuous success. The dynamic architecture and yellow-black advertising placards with the Agip dog permanently altered the appearance of roads in Italy during the time of the economic miracle in the fifties and sixties. The exhibition at Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main can still be viewed until modifications begin on the building on 14th March 2010. It sheds light on the architectural and construction engineering aspects of the filling station with drawings and sketches. More than that, the expressive black and white photographs from the Eni group archives in Rome open the door to an earlier world, to a realm full of optimism and hope for a better future.