CAR/PARK: Driven as shared vehicles, parked as urban furniture

Abstract

No other tool has marked on a city's physical environment as significantly as a car. Nevertheless, an average automobile stays unused 95 percent of its lifespan (Sperling, 2018, p. 2). This paradox results in numerous private vehicles purposelessly occupying public areas, prompting the question: what if an automobile could serve a function while being parked within an urban environment to increase social life of public streets filled with parking spaces? Once cars were popularized, they sparked passion among modernists which further led them to designing their own vision of an ultimate vehicle. However, as sustainability discussion arose, the presence of cars in cities has been questioned by architects in recent decades. In response, car manufacturers have been proposing new prototypes of urban vehicles each year. Nevertheless, such proposals often lack a deeper understanding of architectural principles, which keeps them isolated from the social fabric of urban spaces. This thesis aims to reintegrate an automobile into architectural discourse and infuse architectural qualities into transportation design, demonstrating how these two fields can mutually benefit from another. To achieve complementary solution under Interdisciplinary Design Thinking, the thesis considers selective aspects at the intersection of architecture and automobiles. To present a universal guide through this juxtaposition of disciplines, the thesis follows a circular framework closing the design process in loops that filter all iterations through constant evaluation. The project approach is to answer the majority of needs in stages closest to architectural field of expertise and supplement them with solutions at a system level. The design is shaped by evaluating the architectural qualities that appear between a vehicle and an inconsistent surrounding it faces, which results are concurrently validated by interviews with professionals of the automotive industry. Findings culminate in a concept of a shared vehicle that transforms into urban furniture while being parked. Prototype function in a fleet on a street level which is exploited through stacking possibilities, as well as on a city scale using systematic solutions contributing to the development that automotive industry has fostered on Gothenburg.