Vom Parkhaus zum Multipurpose-Haus

Since industrialization, automobiles have taken on an overly significant role in cities. The enormous space consumption of parking vehicles is a well-known problem. This thesis addresses the mono-functionality and low utilization of parking garages in Vienna and their enormous potential to function as extended living rooms in the city through transformation. Inner-city multi-story car parks offer the opportunity to create community hubs in urban areas lacking social spaces and public meeting points. The existing architecture of underutilized multi-story car parks should be utilized to transform a parking garage into a multipurpose building for residents in a resource-efficient manner.

The goal is to develop various urban planning concepts for parking garages in the city after an inventory of multi-story car parks in the greater Vienna area, and to design different types of multipurpose buildings that compensate for socio-spatial deficits in their surroundings. In this way, monofunctional parking garages are transformed into city and neighborhood hubs with a diverse range of social spaces, mobility and supply services, providing added value at the neighborhood, district, and city levels.

Initially, the history of parking and the role of parking garages, as well as the changes in the use of parking spaces and parking garage architecture, will be examined. Next, the impact of the Garage Grande in the 16th district, a temporary use project in a former garage, will be analyzed on a socio-spatial and cultural level. An expert interview supports this analysis and explains the parking garage as a space of possibilities in the city. Based on these findings, transformation proposals will be tested in three different parking garages in Vienna. The respective locations and their surroundings will be analyzed, the spatial and programmatic potentials will be identified, and a concrete transformation proposal will be developed. The socio-spatial level of such a transformation and its impact will also be explained.