Examples and ideas on how to transform garages into other spaces

Since the beginning of the 20th century, automobiles have shaped cities and architecture and required specific spaces for movement and storage. Cars and motorcycles dictated the organization of spaces and the resulting urban and rural landscapes of entire countries. However, with the climate crisis and the realization of the problems that this development model brings to cities and the planet, more initiatives are being noticed every day that aim to eliminate individual and motorized cars that run on fossil fuels, while at the same time we too recognize the need to give new meaning to spaces previously dedicated to cars. In addition to the streets and public spaces, this transformation can also be felt in the homes and apartment buildings, which are beginning to see garages as a more dynamic space.

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Usually, the garage is a storage room that is mainly used to store cars and motorcycles and to protect them from the weather. In some places it can share space with service areas such as heating and hydraulics, or also serve as storage for tools and items that are not accessed on a day-to-day basis. In some places, the garage can even be used as a home workshop, but in general its use is marginal and its location far from the social areas of the home. By redesignating our relationship with the car, we are also redesigning the spaces associated with it, which brings with it new uses, whether through the car’s permanence and coexistence with other everyday needs, or considering its total absence.

In the case of Office Ou’s The Garage Gem, the project arose from the desire to transform the traditional urban garage into a flexible leisure space that gave way to a real extension of the home, as well as an open event space to create community bonds. In the case of tini Pavilion by tini + delavegacananolasso, the idea was to find an intermediate space between a garage and a showroom, a living room and an art gallery. But a radical transformation is not always required, sometimes a small change of interpretation is enough, reflected in the architectural design, as in the case of House in Salineiras by RVdM Arquitectos, where the garage acquires status as an entrance hall.

The Garage Gem / Office Ou

tini pavilion / tini + delavegacanolasso

House in Salineiras / RVdM Arquitectos

However, the transformation can be even more radical, completely transforming the garage space and giving it a new use, independent of the car. In the case of Loft Grandpa by MEIUS Arquitetura, the project transforms the old small garage into a barrier-free residence for a gentleman over 90 years old. Garage House, by fala, transforms the ground floor of a 1950s house, where the garage used to be, into an apartment for a couple of about 200 m².

Loft Grandpa / MEIUS Arquitetura

garage house / fala

While the floor space of a residential garage can make room for apartments after major renovations, it also has a unique connection to the street. This is interesting for commercial buildings, as in the case of Floricultura Flowerbar by AR Arquitetos, which transforms the building’s old garage into a beautiful flower garden, or even Carlo Bagliani’s Underground Garage, which transforms the garage into an art gallery and studio. Itamonte Garage, by Zebulun Arquitetura, uses the space to serve a production of craft beers by inserting a large living room with an open kitchen, a suite, a bathroom and maintenance areas.

Floricultura Flowerbar / AR Arquitetos

Underground car park / Carlo Bagliani

Itamonte Garage / Zebulun Arquitetura

Although the car independence of our cities is still a long way off in our cities, it is interesting to see how architecture is responding to this process, modifying an existing space that is often underutilized and turning it into new proposals for residents and also for transforms the city by giving new meaning to uses and relationships.