Archinect - News

Melbourne considers the future potential of high-rise parking areas as urban farms

2023-08-17T12:17:00-04:00

Urban farms and communal spaces are among the ideas for repurposing car park floors in Melbourne’s skyscrapers in the future, when it is predicted that residents will rely more on driverless and shared electric cars. The architects of Melbourne’s tallest building, Australia 108, have created designs envisioning the transformation of the building’s 10 levels of car parking into space for a vertical farm, beehives, water collection and storage, pet care, podcast studios, co-working and education.

Downtown Melbourne's potential future scenario of widely-available self-driving cars has developers rethinking millions of square feet worth of parking garages, and vertical farms are seen as a solution (along with housing, retail, and dining options). An amendment to its planning rules that would require new parking structure designs to include their retrofitting consideration has been proposed that would add an extra layer to the pedestrian-friendly ambit that mirrors policies in Oslo, Barcelona, and other global cities.

According to The Age, a 2019 City Council survey suggests an overwhelming majority (95%) of Melbourne residents support the idea of reducing vehicle traffic in Southbank by 2030.

Would you pay $760,000 for parking? World's most expensive spot sells for just that!

2018-06-22T14:33:00-04:00

Hong Kong is the world's most expensive real estate market, which helps explain why the world's most expensive parking spot just sold there for the equivalent of $760,000 USD. And no, despite the enormous price tag, the parking spot doesn't come with an apartment included, or anything particularly special for that matter.

The single parking space originally was bought for $430,000 USD in September 2017 and was handsomely resold for almost double that earlier this month. The lot is located on the first floor of a luxury residential development in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong, where apartments cost millions and millions. With only 370 spaces, in a complex of 527 units, this has led to a bidding war amongst its ultra-wealthy residents.

"The development is in a luxury residential area. The residents have a lot of cash and simply do not care about a few million dollars when a flat there costs about $12.7 million (HK$100 million)," Sandia Lau, a director at Centaline Property Agenc...

Is City Transformer's new folding car the answer to our parking problems?

2017-11-15T15:22:00-05:00

Urban drivers spend an average of 20 minutes per trip looking for parking and studies have found that anywhere from about 30 to 60 percent of the cars you see driving around a downtown core are doing just that. The energy spent looking for parking burns 47,000 gallons of gas and generates 730 tons of carbon dioxide a year and in dense cities like New York City, can account for up to 40% of energy consumed by automobiles.

Urbanists have long seen the emergence of self-driving cars as the solution to problems posed by parking as well as other urban ills; as fleets of robocars replace the need for individual car ownership, the amount of parking needed will decline accordingly freeing up large swaths of space for other uses while reducing energy consumption.

Adding to this vision for new urban transportation, the Israeli company City Transformer has designed a self-driving car with an added bonus: it folds itself, shrinking at the push of a button to fit into a motorcycle parking spa...

Third Friday of September Celebrates Parking Day

2017-09-15T15:06:00-04:00

Since 2005, when John Bela and his collaborators(Blaine Merker, and Matthew Passmore) installed the first Park(ing) intervention on a drab street in downtown San Francisco, the idea has gone on to enliven countless blocks around the world, and to enlighten countless urbanites, who get to enjoy spaces normally reserved for stationary cars.

Parking Day advocates since 2005 for public access and alternative uses of parking space in cities. This now world wide event transforms parking spots into ephemeral public spaces every year on the third Friday of September. Projects include micro parks, installations by architects and artists, urban farming, bike repair stations and coffee shops.

This map shows the locations of Parking Day 2017.

More articles on the politics of parking on Archinect:

11th annual "Parking Day" transforms parking spaces into public spaces

2015-09-18T00:04:00-04:00

In 2005, the now defunct Rebar placed coins in a San Francisco parking meter not to park a car but to erect a small public park. Every third Friday in September since then, activists worldwide who wish to foster a conversation about the lack of public space have been transforming parking spaces into everything from greenery to art installations to places for wedding ceremonies. This September 18th, potential participants are encouraged to download the Parking Day Manifesto, which is a how-to-guide on transforming that slab of asphalt into an engaging public space.

Trading Parking Lots for Affordable Housing

2014-09-16T17:19:00-04:00

9 x 18. In square feet, that’s 162, smaller than the most micro micro-apartment. It is the size of a typical parking space. That lowly slice of asphalt has prompted three young architects — Miriam Peterson, Sagi Golan and Nathan Rich, fellows at the Institute for Public Architecture — to come up with what could be an innovative way to ease the housing crisis.