Parking lots are an eyesore and steal livable space in many cities, yet they have always been treated as a necessary urban evil. But what about in ten years? Or twenty? As cities build out more convenient and faster public transportation, many of these current parking garages may not be so useful in the future.
Anticipating this, a duo of architecture firms in Calgary have created the design for a convertible parking lot that can easily be repurposed into a residential building or offices when needed. This concept of repurposing instead of building something that will surely be demolished eventually is far too rare. The industry calls this adaptive reuse architecture. Maybe a better name could help the idea catch on more. Any ideas?
