From oasis to mirage
03/31/2025
What's so complicated about a parking garage? It's nothing more than any number of stacked, white-lined levels with ramps in between. Certainly, in theory, every multi-storey car park can be broken down to this simple formula. However, the practical implementation is usually somewhat more planning-intensive.
Firstly, unlike the Sio garage in the children's room, a parking garage can rarely be placed freely in the room, but has to adapt to the existing building fabric. And secondly, a ramp is not always the same as a ramp. Of course there are the simple inclined planes. But then there are also the lossless ramp, the endless ramp, the D'Humy ramp, single or double spindles and, of course, the parking spindle - as well as almost any combination of these seven variants.
In 1970, the German BP Benzin und Petroleum AG published a book entitled "Parkhäuser - Oasen im Verkehr" (Parking garages - oases in traffic), which not only explains the various types of construction, but also outlines concepts for solving future problems. After all, the fact that cars, contrary to their intended purpose, spend most of their time stationary was no longer all that new 55 years ago - nor was the associated fact that their rapidly increasing numbers would soon outstrip the space available in cities.
Available for around 30 euros, the 56-page book is worth a look for its unusual topic alone. While petrol stations have often been the subject of books as accompanying buildings for moving motor traffic, real estate for immobile automobiles has rarely been the subject of books to this day. The large-format color photos also make the BP illustrated book a wonderful contemporary document, as does the vision of the car-friendly city - a future that has already passed.
