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Fast Company World Changing Ideas - These future-proof parking garages can easily morph into offices or housing

“Being able to say I’m just going to convert this parking garage into apartments is often not really the way to go because it’s structurally not really possible,” says UltraBarrio founder Marcus Martinez

Archinet - What if parking garages could have a second life? Design firms like UltraBarrio and Gensler bet on it

“We have to really rethink the DNA of the garage altogether." says UltraBarrio founder Marcus Martinez

Project Management Institute - Teams are Reimagining and Repurposing Parking Facilities for Tomorrow

“Ultrabarrio’s concept proposes the construction of ultra-flexible garages that can be transformed to accommodate a wide variety of needs”

Parking Futures

Civic Structures

Parking Futures imagines fluid and innovative evolutions for the urban parking garage typology. Taking the pancake-stack-section structure of the parking garage as a blank slate on which to develop new organizational logics and inject programming, the work provides a way forward for parking garage construction. Beyond new garages, Parking Futures suggests possibilities for garages that may be decommissioned as alternative modes of transportation loosen our cities’ clogged arteries. 

For sunbelt cities, the parking garage is a conflicted typology. On one hand, these structures are a testament to the modernist dream of an automobile for every household and a workday that keeps professionals' feet off the sidewalk at all costs. On the other, our young urban conscience reminds us that garages are evident of the thoughtless sprawl of impermeable asphalt separating us from one another and hindering the resilience of our cityscapes. 

With car ownership going up by the year in cities like Houston and garage construction showing no signs of stopping, what untapped potential exists within this typology as it stands? Historically, parking garages have been the subject of experimentation in circulation and construction technique. Can we continue to evolve the garage typology to meet the needs of today’s urban communities?

Evolution of Parking Research: