In honor of the debut of Volvo’s first pure-electric vehicle, the new XC40 Recharge, Volvo Cars Canada, and the Interior Design Show Toronto have chosen a winner for their New Garage Design Challenge. Canadian designers were told to rethink the function and design of the garage to then be judged based on criteria gathered by Maru/Blue. Reimagining the garage space as an interactive family space and biophilic greenway, Montreal designer Tiam Maeiyat’s Parking Parc was chosen as the winning concept for merging clean design with sustainability.
Parking Parc was inspired by the pun in its own name– Maeiyat reinterpreted the garage as both a space for parking the vehicle and as an actual greenway that resembles a children’s park. Shaped like a rolling hillside, Parking Parc provides a storage area for parked vehicles that rests beneath the garage’s grassy, recreational exterior. As currently conceptualized, photovoltaic panels punctuate the taller regions of the garage’s exterior, providing clean energy for Volvo’s XC40 Recharge to well, recharge, and enough energy to sustain the rest of the garage’s inside operations. Describing the design in his own words, Maeiyat notes,
“The garage may be the last place in a house one might consider for gathering or entertainment, which is exactly why my design celebrates light and transparency and links the inside and outside of the garage. By doing so, there are new possibilities around quality family time, regardless of time or season.”
While the functionality of garages cannot be argued, they’ve largely stayed the same in design and structure while the vehicles that remain parked inside of them have changed drastically over the years. The New Garage Design Challenge aimed to introduce a new way of looking at garages that fits the contemporary and energy-efficient nature of today’s vehicles. Tiam Maeiyat’s reinterpretation of the traditional garage turns to biophilic design and green roofing to help maintain the home’s natural landscape and grassy surroundings.
Designer: Tiam Maeiyat
Inspired by the rounded edges of Volvo’s XC40 Recharge, Parking Parc’s shapes into a rolling hillside.
Parking Parc’s green roof collects rainwater, purifies the air, reduces the ambient temperature, and saves energy.
“My design upcycles the garage space into a new form of the family room,” notes Tiam Maeiyat.
Flexible solar panels line the top of Parking Parc, providing the garage’s inhabitants with energy.
