Parking Garage is Bedroom
#84. Parking Garage is Bedroom
© 2007 Gabe Chan
A proposal for the reprogramming of parking garages: the garages are modified by Office of Unsolicited Architecture (OUA) trucks to shelter homeless people at night. Cities are full of structures that are not used to capacity because of time-specific programming, which results in a surplus of buildings, especially at night. Free ParkInn redistributes these structural resources to those who need them most through a mobile “urban timeshare.” OUA trucks containing all the equipment for the shelter park in the garages at night. During the day, the same trucks move to a location where they serve as a mailing address for their residents. Founded in 2007 by fourteen members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and The Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Office of Unsolicited Architecture proposes architecture of action instead of reaction: finding its own programs, identifying relevant social issues, and taking advantage of emerging opportunities. OUA offers services to interested and disinterested clients.