This project consists in the corporate image transformation of the underground car parks managed by the municipal company of the Town Hall of Barcelona BSM (Barcelona Serveis Muncipals)

Barcelona is a city in direct contact with the sea, influenced by the Mediterranean culture and with deep roots of its architecture and urbanism suggested by nature. The solution is inspired by the visual perception that we have when immersing under the sea and discover a new world of shapes and colours in the sea bottom.

For the image change, we pretend that the vehicle and its occupants, when descending to the car park, could escape from the intensity and city pressure. Previously, this happened in dark car parks, organised under very strict engineering criteria and with a superposition of car park maintenance that resulted in the excess of traffic signals and commands to the driver. Our proposal consists in reversing these conditions to convert the car park into an illuminated place, with creative freedom in the lot delimitation thorough the use of a system of algae in movement, and with the reduction of the number of traffic signals to that level that ensures the correct driving movements and security in the circulation.

The system that we have used for this change is only based in the use of painting. With a simple colour intervention we decided that a white base in the pavement, ceilings and walls would dilute the limits and borders of the car park. This space of high luminosity provides a sustainable solution result of the artificial light reduction and the increase of the light levels compared to previous solutions. With an ethereal and blurry space as a background, the delimitation of the lots is solved with algae templates with curvy shapes in combination that provoke a surprising result in the user. This results in higher attention of the driver when manouvering to park and better results in the respect of the narrow limits of the lot.

As a result of this pilot experience, the Town Hall of Barcelona is progressively transforming the underground car parks of Barcelona using this new corporate image, so distant from the standards and showing better results in the user’s experience.