Urban mechanics : the parking garage as an instrument of legibility

Abstract

No typology has fragmented urban space more than the parking garage. In fact, the city of Houston's parking contingent practice has a resulted in a garage on 30% of the downtown district.The range from a few underground floors to 15 stories above ground make the garage both a defining contextual attribute and a testament to independently functioning sites. This thesis speculates upon the parking garage typology as an instrument of urban legibility and future growth. When limited to the efficiencies of disciplinary conventions garages are distinct facilitative structures that are site adapted anywhere and predictably limited to the function of vehicle storage. Yet by focussing on the immense scale, the structural language of the garage can be configured as a structural infrastructure that can serve beyond the needs of the vehicle and exert higher-level roles for greater urban spaces.