The municipality of Rotterdam decided to develop a fully automatic parking garage for 140 cars below the Insulinde square in order to decrease the parking demand in the Bergpolder area in Rotterdam. The parking garage is the first advanced fully automatic garage in the municipality of Rotterdam.

Intelligent parking The parking garage disposes of two drive in and exit ways and a waiting space. At the entrance the driver places the car aboveground on a lift plateau. A scan controls both the parking conditions of the car and the safety of the passengers. When there are no passengers in the entrance/exit space left and the conditions are well calculated, the car lift moves the car to the underground level. The automatic parking system positions the car in the correct parking space. The car can be summoned in the waiting space or via Internet, the lift positions the car back in order for the driver to exit the parking garage.

Efficient parking solution The advanced parking machine saves money on: substantial subterranean building volume; a 24/7 guard; energy consumption since permanent ventilation and lightning are unnecessary. Due to the parking process taking place in a transparent space, the social security increased and damages and pollution of the parked cars are limited to a minimum.

Dynamic architectonic volume To increase the feeling of safety, the drive in boxes aboveground and the waiting space are designed in a transparent glass minimalistic rectangular volume. The glass façade is printed with silver light reflecting vertical stripes. The reflecting stripes create transparency in the interior without the space to warm up through sunlight. The reflection shapes a dynamic architectonic volume that playfully interacts with the environment.