Often necessitated by a lack of infrastructure related to transit systems or urban planning, cities that are not walkable require car parks wherever personal transportation is necessary. Although they vary in size, function, and overall design, parking structures in urban centers are generally characterized by their massive size and scale. While these spaces ensure that we can fit automobiles as needed, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with developments in travel systems and heightened environmental awareness, has reduced the need for parking. But what becomes of the underutilized, abandoned or outdated car parks that we see around us?
New Life for Car Parks
Today, car parks sit vacant in cities worldwide that are dominated by work/life/play mixed-use structures and walkable components. Consequently, architects and urban developers have posited an exciting and perhaps more economical address to this emerging issue—we reuse them.
These structures, particularly non-residential, multistory car parks with their abundance of natural light and lowlight spaces, have repurposing potential. We now see opportunities to convert previously underutilized car parks into homes, retail stores, offices, food and beverage venues, fitness centers and logistical hubs—allowing for far more practical space utilization.
The Assessment
Before we consider the conversion of these structures, it’s essential to assess their architectural elements and how they influence the car parks’ adaptive reuse or retrofitting potential. Key characteristics of a classic multistory parking garage are its regular grid layout and its sloping floors. Coupled with flat roofs, bulky structures and deep floor plates, the transformation of these structures is made simple thanks to car parks’ prefabricated, easily manipulatable components.
Benefits of Repurposing
The conversion of car parks provides tangible environmentally conscious and cost-effective benefits. Repurposing car parks minimizes waste production and eliminates the need for new materials that would have otherwise been utilized for a new structure. Converting an existing car park also keeps costs down because the price of an adaptive reuse project is never more significant than new construction. Even in the instance where a garage is in disrepair, the renovation cost would be equal to or less than the demolition and replacement cost of an entirely new space.
Because of their access to the outdoors, the upper level of converted parking lots also serves as a natural choice for the “regreening” of spaces through the implementation of trees and other flora— mostly due to their access to natural air and light. This simple solution improves the heat-island effect, the phenomena that structures often absorb and reemit the sun’s heat at greater rates than natural materials. Greening offers shade and lower temperatures while also adding value to the real estate.
Another unexpected benefit of converting car parks lies in the freedom that it gives designers. When local building regulations are considered, a renovation may potentially exempt developers and architects from considerations necessary for new builds.
Overcoming the Challenges
Despite the benefits, it can be difficult to imagine these car parks as useful beyond their intended function. For example, understandable concerns arise regarding ceiling heights, access to light and structural considerations. Taking note of this, many innovative solutions allow for the conversion of these spaces. Ceiling clearance can be remedied by introducing uses that require lower floor-to-ceiling heights, as well as the utilization of thinner flooring finishes and exposed ceiling structure solutions within spaces.
Beyond maximizing size, design considerations can also address issues of light. Utilizing white or translucent materials throughout interiors, in addition to open layouts and façades that allow unobstructed daylight to fill the space, offers solutions to questions of exposure.
When it comes to structural inquiries, removing ramps and reinforcement of slabs is the first step in ensuring building integrity. Beyond this, adding vertical cores and leveling floors offers the stability and infrastructure needed for updated use. The techniques exist to successfully convert these spaces, introducing new functionality and breathing life back into previously empty spaces.
Key Design Principles
With the case for these renovations made, it’s necessary to consider design sensibilities when taking on projects of this type. Put simply, key design principles to consider in these spaces are three-fold: flexibility, innovation and connection.
Offering changeable systems, structures and models allow spaces to be utilized in various ways with the ability to adapt to our ever-changing climate. Innovative layouts within these conversions should serve to blur the distinctions between programs themselves, offering guests the full breadth of inter-connected amenities, services or businesses. Further, a unique opportunity exists to foster greater connection by implementing innovative social spaces that have been accelerated because of our new post-pandemic lifestyles. With these principles in mind, car parks become functional spaces that exceed the experiential needs of visitors and ensure that they will eventually return.
As urban centers reinvent themselves to stay in touch with the public’s updated needs, it’s evident that car parks often take up more space than the benefit they provide is worth. One study from the United Kingdom estimates that repurposing the nation’s 20,000 non-residential car parks could provide nearly 1.2 million homes. This statistic is staggering and puts into perspective the almost egregious misuse of space that often coincides with the existence of car parks.
Recalibrating spaces to offer purposeful necessities within reasonable distances factors into the urban landscape’s overall future, especially of “15-minute neighborhoods”. These livable, mixed-use communities where people can shop, relax, exercise and more—all within a walkable distance from their homes and places of work—have shown to be better equipped to handle a health crisis, economic lockdown and financial downturn. The 15-minute neighborhood concept is where CallisonRTKL sees the future of development within cities heading, and the conversion of existing car parks can be seen as an exciting first step in this direction.
Looking Forward
In a constantly evolving society, it remains crucial to consider what to do with outdated or unused infrastructure. While demand for parking continues decreasing over the long term, the land value used for parking will only increase through development. Eventually, the higher land value will exceed the cost of structured parking. These lots can then be integrated into new developments or connected to existing ones.
As urban planning increasingly aims to reduce vehicular traffic and prioritize pedestrians, architects and urban land developers will need to provide solutions to reimagine the use of car parks effectively. As we move forward, there are two choices: leave these spaces to deteriorate in the short term, or convert them into something engaging for the communities they
exist within for the long term. Ultimately, the benefits (social, environmental, financial) of bringing these new spaces to urban centers through repurposing have the potential to positively impact cities for years to come.
PHOTOS: Essential Images Photography