Future Car Park, designed by Daniel Statham Studio and located in Hangzhou’s central CBD, is a vertical parking complex that combines automated parking technology with green public spaces, with a capacity of 500 parking spaces for electric and non-electric vehicles. Future Car Park is made up of a series of “Futuristic Towers” where cars are stacked using a lift and stacking system. The towers rise and bloom into a connected roof form that houses entertainment facilities and roof gardens. Future Car Park invents a new way for people to commute to urban hubs while also creating an urban oasis that combines the latest automated parking technologies, public space, event spaces, and public hanging gardens.
The circulation of cars and people is separated at Basement Level -01 upon entering Future Car Park. Cars are driven directly to lower basement parking zones or stack parking zones in the towers. The automated parking system assigns a specific parking spot to each vehicle based on the required parking time set by the parking user while constantly adjusting parking arrangements based on the estimated pick-up time for each vehicle.
When a parking user enters the building, they request their car, which is then returned to them by an automated system from the towers to the “Collection Zone.” They can then exit the building via Exit A or B, which will take them to the road system.
The building is a “Parking Oasis” in many ways, celebrating the harmony between car and city through breathtaking technology and architecture within a Garden Paradise and creating a naturally sustainable building. The building’s semi-internal quality allows for an abundance of natural ventilation and daylight, which significantly reduces the energy consumption from mechanical equipment to warm and cool the building throughout the year, providing a perfect balance of temperature and ventilation within the building’s spaces for people to enjoy. It uses sunlight and stormwater to clean and rinse the building.
The towers’ architecture, with their porous cladding system, not only establishes the vertical structure for the building’s lateral stability but also serves as a ventilation system that penetrates the basement areas. As a kind of 21st-century chimney, Future Car Park ventilates car fumes from non-electric vehicles around the basement edge via the sinuous ramping system and through the porous “Towers.”
Future Car Park combines its structure with one-of-a-kind spaces to celebrate future cars while also providing a healthy, energizing environment for families, friends, and businesses. On the site’s outskirts, the building complex consists of six circular towers and four orthogonal towers. Three circular towers in the site’s center stack cars, while lifts embedded in the other three circular towers allow visitors to ascend to the rooftop. The four columns at the site’s four corners house fire escape. A “Plaza” naturally forms beneath the towers at Level 01 and Basement Level -01 for people to congregate and interact with the surrounding parkland. During the summer, the upward-extending towers act as a “Canopy of Trees,” providing shade from the hot sun and rain.
This architecture creates magnificent public and commercial spaces. The lift and stacking system transports cars vertically within the Towers while lifts transport people from the lower levels to the rooftop, adding to the building’s vertical animation. When you are close to the building, you can see through it. The facade system is a louvered cladding that allows both a view of the parking towers and automated parking technology as well as an outward aspect from the building’s upper levels. People can enjoy an additional “Park” and public space on the rooftop garden, where they can enjoy fantastic views and perspectives of the city as well as the internal environment of this building.
Daniel Statham, Founder and Director of Daniel Statham Studio, commented: “We have attempted to combine and celebrate automotive technologies in both its vehicular and parked form, in its ever-evolving sustainable pursuit and house it as ‘Art within the Architecture.’ It is a celebration of ‘Man and Machine’ in a space for the future city that makes a statement to create a healthier and more sustainable environment for all.”
Project Info
Project Name: Future Car Park
Type: Public Architecture
Area: 30, 740 sqm
Date: 2016-2022
Location: Northeast corner, Qiutao Road and East Qingchun Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
Design Firm: Daniel Statham Studio
Studio Locations: London, Shanghai
Lead Architect: Daniel Statham
Client: Hangzhou CBD Investment Group Co., LTD
Local Design Institute: Zhejiang Province Institute of Architectural Design and Research
Structure Engineering: Atelier One, Zhejiang Province Institute of Architectural Design and Research
Photographer: RAWVISION studio and Zhong Ke Li Heng
