Architectural car parks, in the same vein as bridge design, present a typology that straddles different worlds. Urban infrastructure, design statements in their own right, as well as effectively storage for beloved (and valuable) design items, these frequently neglected structures form part of many modern cities. Large by nature and sometimes therefore seemingly unwieldy as a result, the car park serves an important function in urban planning and our quest to create city centres that can be easily navigated on foot.
When it comes to their design, car parks can be highly expressive structures, with several 20th-century cases in the modernist architecture history books to explore. The much-loved by the architectural community, but ultimately demolished Welbeck Street car park and its grided façade in central London was designed by Michael Blampied and Partners in 1971. The capital's 1969 Minories Car Park in Tower Bridge is another example, in raw concrete.
