Figure 1

Figure 2

A Park For Cars

This article looks at car parking for healthcare buildings, looking at the challenges of provisions and includes examples of innovative car parks.

Parking is a vast and emotive subject, and not one that is easy to design well. Health providers face a number of significant challenges when trying to understand the extent and nature of the parking they should create whilst reducing its impact and increasing its amenity.

So, how do we create places that are less about car parks but more parks for cars? This short study will focus on some recent approaches to this looking specifically at the overall treatment of parking areas.

One of the factors consistently debated around parking is demand. The general consensus from Health Boards is that the more parking you provide the more it will be used. Some studies even go so far as to suggest that the integration of green transport infrastructure is not a sufficient enough measure to reduce overall demand. Therein lies the problem. How do you strike a balance between what is needed and what is appropriate? Two recent studies undertaken by Eltis and WSP give some suggestions about how to tackle demand within a healthcare setting.

Given the nature of funding for most healthcare facilities the predominant approach to parking is through surface provision. The following identifies a number of watchpoints.

Organisation and arrangement

The organisation and layout is an important aspect in the design of parking areas and will have a significant bearing on both the initial impression and operation. Human nature tends to suggest that parking spaces closest to the entrance fill up first, meaning that people can often circle to find a closer space. This is more pronounced in (fig 1) where there is a single entrance used by all users (staff, visitors and patients). Where there are two entrances, it is useful to span the parking between these, giving two prime parking areas and the middle acting as a buffer between these (fig 2).

Finnish Sports Federation - Bond Creative Agency (Arttu Salovaara, Aleksi Hautamäki and Tuukka Koivisto) - 2010photograph by Carl Bergman

The Martha Schwartz designed Beiqijia Technology District in Beijing incorporates residential, retail and office with a mix of soft and hard landscapes. This creates a vibrant mix of surfaces reducing the overall appearance of the car park.

Integration of walking routes

Historically car parks have been designed to give priority to the car user. A more patient-centred approach should be adopted through the incorporation of walking routes and rights of way, reducing the overall dominance of the car and also creating opportunities to link the space with the wider community.

Additional safety measures for pedestrians such as increasing planting heights a strategy employed at the Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, can reduce visibility for drivers, which in turn will slow cars down. Thinking about the journey from the car to the entrance from the early stages of the project can ensure a clearly defined route to the facility.

Scale and Impact

Larger areas can often feel overwhelming for the user. Breaking down the scale and nature of parking into smaller sections is helpful in reducing its impact, for example, where the parking has a change in surface texture this can reduce the overall visual impact of a large parking area (fig 3). Bluewater shopping centre in London uses a series of individual areas creating a less obtrusive parking environment, yet retaining 13,000 spaces each within a five minute walking distance to an entrance. Alternatively the incorporation of green space between parking can make a large car park appear less obtrusive.

Figure 3Beiqijia Technology Business District, Beijing, China - Martha Schwartz Partners Photography - Terrence Zhang

Bluewater Shopping Centre Car Park - Architects: CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates

Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg - David Jarvis Associates

Landscape treatment

The Nippon Steel Kitakyushu Technology Centre uses a variety of surface treatments to alter the look and feel of its car park with additional sloping grass mounds shielding the parked cars from the street.

Dundee Tech Park saw landscape architect firm Ian White Associates used previously developed woodland and altered it to create a ‘high quality setting for a diverse range of buildings’. Additionally, a collaboration with sculptor David Annand saw sculptures of Roebucks added to the overall park design enhancing its links with nature.

In addition to greenspace, or where it is more difficult to provide any, there is opportunity to use art or graphics to offer an alternative approach to parking. The Finnish Sports Federation have added graphic elements relating to their sports heritage and include a short running track. Other quirky attempts at car

Finnish Sports Federation - Bond Creative Agency (Arttu Salovaara, Aleksi Hautamäki and Tuukka Koivisto) - 2010photograph by Carl Bergman

park art include road stenciling by artist Roadworth and ‘Ghost Lot’ where artist and architect James Wines encased some old cars in tarmac leaving them parked permanently. Some of these examples are possible as retrospective additions.

Car Park Stenciling artwork and photography by Roadsworth (Artist)

Castle Business Park - Ian White Associates Dundee Tech Park - Ian White Associates (Roebucks by David Annand)

Hotel Silken Puerta de América - Teresa Sapey Architects

Wider community use/integration of the site

Greendykes and Wauchope Square as part of the Parc Development in Craigmillar, Edinburgh incorporate shared surfaces through much of the scheme taking influence from the Dutch ‘Homezones’ in which, the spaces between buildings are given to pedestrians and not cars. Cars do use these spaces but at a reduced pace allowing a safe environment for children to play and people to walk or cycle. Inzinzac-Lochrist in France also adopted this approach in their city centre redevelopment. Industrial decay following the closure of the cities foundries in the late 1960s left a great number brownfield sites, which were developed bringing the town centre back to life encouraging a greener more sustainable town. The example below shows a hollistic approach to parking.

Multi Storey and Underground parking

These forms of parking are less commonly used due to cost and only tend to be used on much larger projects or where there are space restrictions. However, it is becoming increasingly common for design teams to approach car parks as they would any new building with more aesthetic quality such as the Charles Street car park in Sheffield by Allies and Morrison or Cardiff Bay MSCP by Base Structures.

Alternatively, the internal treatment of a multi storey car park, like at Hotel Silken Puerta de América in Madrid by Teresa Sapey Architects can help improve wayfinding and provide a playful approach to design.

City of Inzinzac-Lochrist - Urbicus / Jean-Marc Gaulier Charles Street Car Park - Allies and Morrison Urban Practitioners

Supporting imagery available at - Pinterest