Roadside Typologies Study

This study examines gas stations and retail strip malls through the dual lenses of Rem Koolhaas’s research‑driven analysis of commercial typologies and Venturi and Scott Brown’s reading of the everyday American landscape. It focuses on how these roadside environments use sign as their primary architectural language—communicating function, identity, and desire more through graphics and visibility than through form. By mapping these signs and their spatial effects, the study reveals how the contemporary strip organizes experience through symbols rather than buildings. Full credit is given to Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown for the taxonomy‑based analytical framework established in Learning from Las Vegas, which directly informed the structure of this study.