Human ingenuity is only matched by our love of the bizarre, and even something as seemingly mundane as a car park isn’t immune from this phenomena. This week we’re going to take another look at what happens when architects and designers are given a blank slate and told to produce not just a car park, but a work of art.
The KRE House – Tokyo
The KRE house in Tokyo is a triumph of architectural design – especially if you’re a car lover. Modern, light, clean and airy though the house is, Japanese architect Takuya Tsuchida’s masterpiece is the nine car garage situated on the ground floor. Featuring a mechanical platform that allows you to raise one of your supercars through the sliding panel in the kitchen, this car park is as extravagant as it is bonkers. After all, who doesn’t want to have dinner in a Ferrari? Er…
The Q Park, Charles Street – Sheffield
A lot closer to home we have one of the candidates for the world’s funkiest car park – the Q Park in Charles Street, Sheffield. Designed by the award-winning Allies and Morrison Architects, the Q Park is known as “the cheese grater” to local residents. Why? Well, the façade of this rectangular car park is adorned with a series of square metallic blocks, each of which is angled slightly differently to create an interesting effect inside and out. This random pattern creates a beautiful green light throughout the interior of the building as the sun moves across the sky – we’d be pretty jealous if this car park was in Leeds!
Millennium Point – Birmingham
Another visually extraordinary car park in the UK is located at Millennium Point in Birmingham. Designed to allow as much external light into the building during the day as possible, the exterior of the building is decorated with large frosted Perspex panels that glow blue at night. Coupled with its irregularly shaped windows and staggered protrusions, it’s a real feature of the Birmingham skyline.
Frank’s Café – Peckham
On the rooftop of Peckham’s multi-storey car park, next to Peckham Rye station, sits an outdoor café designed by Practice Architecture for the Bold Tendencies project – a local commissioning art project specialising in large installations and structures. Serving locally sourced food cooked to a high standard by local chefs, Frank’s café has turned a boring 60s monolithic car park into a seriously cool place to hang out!
Of course, here at Trafalgar Street Car Park our sole aim is to make your visit as smooth and comfortable as possible – we don’t need any gimmicks to provide a great service at a great price, but we’re still pretty impressed by these crazy car park counterparts!