Yo Parking – Urban parkings that evolve

PREMISE

Progressing at light speed our megacities don’t look anywhere close to what they are today. While cities grow in terms of infrastructure or development - mobility has to keep up. Cities might have shaped mobility in the past, but today it’s vice versa. In such times of technological advancement, these comfort boxes, have dominated for a very long period and evolved with society and its relevance to the same. While the transport has evolved - the presence of cars as a mode of transit has survived unusually long with almost zero competition. It’s when cities started experiencing the repercussions of too many cars - things have started to change. Innovations in this domain introduced a few alternatives that gained reputation, none the less the number of cars did not budge. Cars that were made to make our lives easier are slowly bleeding out the public life of the city and now a poison to not only public spaces but human life at large. With a substantial increase in the number of cars directly points towards a need in more space or parking. This is now putting a void in an already aggravating dense urban area, moving it into a nasty deadlock.

Challenge

 As the mobility problem is so universal - individuals and collectives around the world are fighting back really hard to find a workaround to alleviate humanity out of this manmade crisis. Since cities are still submissive to development led by cars and there is a tremendous motion to fix this massive problem without a starting point. With no real alternative in sight, there is an inextinguishable need for empty spaces which is paradoxical in an immense space crunch, the go-to solutions are parking towers that we see today. These skeletons are highly functional, cost-optimized with their prime priority cars only. Automobile shaping cities get the most figuratively accurate in these buildings which take shape by a car’s turning radius and not the city it inhabits. With the uncertainty that prevails, it is logical to ask whether we should still follow cars to define future cities?

Architecture has the biggest design opportunity in this uncertainty. In spite of so many unsolvable problems about parking and traffic, what really works in favour of a designer is the average age of the buildings. Architecture can outlive these uncertainties of transportation and make a powerful negotiation in paving a better future of transportation and our public spaces.

The design problem: Can we build a parking tower which functionally serves its purpose, yet advocates for better public spaces while embodying evolutionary qualities promoting a positive transportation shift?

SITE:

Manhattan is one of the most densely populated of New York’s 5 boroughs and the largest CBD of the world. With more than a million visitors per week, it houses many iconic structures that symbolize the scale of the population this area serves. Manhattan might seem saturated with development on the outside, but there’s still a relentless potential of growth on the inside. And with this growth potential what follows is the dire need of parking which is ever inadequate. The scarcity is visible in the average cost of parking space paid by daily commuters or visitors. With a problem so intense, what lies here is a huge hidden opportunity. Parking as a subject might hold a very little interest for a designer, but putting it in the perspective of Manhattan it becomes a very significant problem. As dense CBDs of the world are following footsteps of Manhattan, how can we advocate for parking structures that communicate more people-friendly spaces in our unfriendly modern cities.

Timeline:

Launch April 2, 2019

Advance Registration closes: June 16, 2019.

20$ Students, 30$ Professionals, 80$ Institutional Access

Early Registration closes: July 16, 2019.

30$ Students, 50$ Professionals, 120$ Institutional Access

Standard Registration: August 30, 2019.

40$ Students, 70$ Professionals, 160$ Institutional Access

Submission Deadline: September 9, 2019.

Public Voting begins: September 10, 2019.

Public Voting ends: October 10, 2019.

Result Announcement: October 20, 2019.

Prizes:

Prize pool of worth 4000$

First Prize: 1500$ (For students and professionals)

Runner up: 800$ (For students and professionals)

People’s Choice: 450$ (For students – Most appreciated project wins this)

People’s Choice: 450$ (For students – Most appreciated project wins this)

Honorable mention x 2 (Students): 200$ Each

Honorable mention x 2 (Professionals): 200$ Each

Learn more on http://competitions.uni.xyz/yo-parking

More competitions here: http://competitions.uni.xyz