What is architecture you ask? The answers could fill volumes, and do. But you're focusing on an interesting building type - parking garages, and whether or not they can really be considered architecture. In addition to this question, you have raised an issue about whether or not an architect who designs only the facade of a parking garage is really creating architecture.
Since parking garages are a building type, how can you question whether or not parking garages constitute architecture? They have a program, they occupy space in the built environment, they are used by people to conduct a human activity. These all sound like aspects of architecture to me. True, they don't have as robust a program as say, a hospital, but that may allow them to be even more expressive of design than other building types because the design doesn't need to get bogged down with complex functional requirements. Setting aside parking garages that have a street level retail component or other mixed use, the program for a parking garage is fairly straightforward - a place where automobiles are stored when they are not being used for transportation. A primary goal is to store the automobiles in an efficient manner, resulting in a minimal cost per car. This is a functional type problem closer akin to engineering, There is another goal of maximizing the visitor's experience of arriving at the parking garage, searching for a place to store the vehicle, disembarking the automobile, and exiting the garage. While these goals are important, the parking garage client, the governing authority charged with determining whether or not the parking garage should be allowed to exist in the first place, and the general public at large are generally more concerned with the appearance of the garage and how it fits into the community. While a parking garage does not need a "skin" in order for it to perform its intended purpose, most of the time, the aforementioned stakeholders prefer that the structure and the automobiles be concealed to some extent. They often consider the "skin" to be the most important part of the building. Inasmuch as the design of a parking garage "skin" is a response to a problem that has been raised by the client and community, and is part of the building's program, how could it not be considered architecture? Since it has the most impact on the surrounding community, and since it does not need to be burdened with a complex program, the skin of a parking garage is a wonderful architectural design opportunity to consider such issues as the relationship of solids and voids, light and shadow, texture and pattern, translucency and opaqueness. Smells like architecture to me. Are you saying that if an architect receives a commission to design the exterior of a parking garage, that his/her efforts should not be considered architecture? That's preposterous! Architecture is the sum of the parts. But it can also be the parts themselves. Your contention that architecture doesn't exist unless it is concerned with a building in its entirety is just too limiting.
To make my point, I'd like to direct your attention to a parking garage that was designed by hometown St. Louis architectural firm, HOK. When this garage was nearing completion, I noticed that each level of the concrete structure above the street level retail space was painted a different pleasant color, which was good, but then came the application of the "skin". I was taken aback by the powerful effect of the design solution. In St. Louis, the wind doesn't blow all that often. But when it does, look at the effect it has on the facade of this parking garage! We all know what wind sounds like. We can see its effects, from a leaf blowing down the street to trees bent over or toppled, but we can never actually see the wind. This kinetic parking garage facade allows us to "see" what the wind looks like, and in the process transforms itself from mere architecture to a public work of art on a grand scale! That's something that very few buildings can achieve, let alone a component of a building. Putting a non-sequitur skin on a parking garage probably isn't much different that putting a neocolonial face on a modern building. Neither one is a good idea. But putting a well-designed, thoughtful, even meaningful skin on a parking garage is as valid a work of architecture as any other.
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Randall L Comfort AIA
Comfort Architecture
Saint Louis MO
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-11-2017 17:09
From: Mike Mense
Subject: what is architecture
This is the first post in an attempt to rejuvenate a specifically COD focused discussion forum. That is not to suggest that I think I know, or personally represent, what COD members care about. As these discussions go, I probably have relatively eggheaded concerns. Feel free to press this back towards reality if that's your thing.
What is architecture? Let's talk about parking garages. When we were in Austin there was a parking garage a few blocks east and north of the conference hotel that had a wonderfully sublime presence. In Denver, I remember seeing a parking garage which was one of the most enjoyable presences in downtown Denver. Frank Gehry, early on, made a splash by reskinning a parking garage in Santa Monica (in that case, though, there was more to the project). All of these projects probably won AIA awards. But is it architecture? If it is, in what sense? Many of us are beholden to the idea that when we do a building, we do the whole building. That is, form, plan, material, detail, even furniture all matter in terms of the success of a project. In the case of these parking garages the architect's work is limited to the facade. For the most part, it could be claimed, the architect's job is to hide the rest of the project. How can that be architecture? Or to put it another way, how is putting a non-sequitir skin on a parking garage different from putting a neo-colonial face on a modern building? I look forward to your thoughts. I also would love to see some images of better or worse examples of parking lot architecture.
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Mike Mense FAIA
mmenseArchitect
New York NY
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