We all love a little space, especially when it comes to parking our cars. In this case, a big space would be preferable, but, as anyone who has experienced city parking knows, big spaces are far and few between these days. And it’s going to get worse. That’s the bad news. The good? Smarter people than me have been busy developing ways around the tight car crunch that many of us experience daily.
Check out a few examples that stoke the cause for optimism.
Floating Car Park in Tokyo
When in doubt, take to the seas. The Umihotaru (Sea Firefly) car park is built on an artificial island and is made to resemble a cruise ship. As part of Japan’s underwater aqua line, Umihotaru offers parkers a place to shop, eat, and enjoy views of the city. It’s also apparently a meet-up spot for all kinds of performance cars. And what better place to come home to than the KRE house in Tokyo?
Michigan Theatre in Detroit
Art and commerce come together nicely in this decades old theatre turned parking lot. Instead of demolishing the Michigan Theatre, which had seen better days, the people of Detroit decided to gut the inside and turn it into a 160 space parking facility. It’s a good way to get an up close view of the old architecture or receive mean stares from Eminem.
Robotic Garage in Dubai
If you’ve got lots of money, you can design something like Dubai’s 765 vehicle storage facility. Space and time efficiency are the main components of these robotic facilities, and more and more of these designs are popping up around the world. It’s just too bad that those greasy robots are taking all the valet jobs.
Carousel Garage in Tokyo
Tokyo’s aptly named Carousel garage may seem like a theme park ride, but the real fun comes from saving space in an overcrowded city, amiright?
Autostadt Garage in Wolfsburg Germany, Germany in General
Germans know what they’re doing, as evident from their numerous adventures in new car parking tech. Autostadt (car city) is a theme park/car dealership where buyers can pick up their new Volkswagen via a robotic arm that grabs vehicles from a honeycomb of car slots. And when unsightly parking lots threaten to ruin the views of city sights, just go underground like the folks that designed the Wöhr multiparker. And this multilevel parking thing seems to be catching on- what’s with that parking job, though?
Sky Garage Apartments in Singapore & New York
Apparently these self-serving condo elevator themes are starting to become more common, which is evident to anyone with millions of dollars. Pull in to your elevator spot, scan your thumbprint, and then your car is taken right to your floor- which makes for the home ultimate centerpiece and a nice parking alternative for really lazy people.
Check out this one in New York; I’m all for the new technology, but let’s make sure we don’t make this mistake too often.
