Lukas Frenzel

The mobility landscape within growing urban areas is evolving rapidly. While the concept of car-free city centers and green mobility gains popularity, one typology continues to proliferate in cities across Germany and the world: parking garages. Like monuments to car-dependent societies, they dot the urban fabric of expanding cities. The demand for parking spaces remains high, posing challenges for city planners and architects. How should we address these structures if the vision of car-reduced city centers, space-efficient mobility, and livable public areas are to become a reality?

Urban growth and escalating demand for both private and public spaces emphasize  this challenge of managing parking infrastructure in a changing landscape. With land scarcity and ecological concerns pushing cities to densify within existing boundaries, repurposing structures that have outlived their original purposes becomes essential. However, many existing parking structures may require significant effort to adapt to new uses. In many cases, demolition may seem like the economically standard solution. Nevertheless, sustainability principles call for alternative concepts.

The Postautomobile project focuses on designing a hybrid parking structure that considers its future life cycles from the initial planning stage. The skeletal structure is designed in terms of its concept, grid dimensions, and construction principles to allow for a change in the use of the parking facility with minimal structural and financial effort. Former parking spaces and car ramps can evolve into walkways, winter gardens, and communal greenhouses. The construction offers high flexibility, enabling the design to adapt to various contexts. Exemplified as a design for the plot at Rostock's city harbor, Postautomobile aims to be a conceptual contribution to the exploration of a new approach to parking structure design and to stimulate a more sustainable architectural culture.

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