Having a camera is an excellent excuse for wandering free-style around a city, Flâneur like. I am often excited and dismayed in equal measure by the built environment, after all everything in an urban setting is the end result of a series of human decisions.
This week I've been thinking about car parks. It started with this multi storey in Hull city centre. It was surprisingly empty, especially for a Saturday which isn't something I've ever seen before and it meant being able to look at it uncluttered, a bit like a college with no students (it was the first day of term this week!).
The way the concrete was cast, the fixtures and fittings all suggested a previous era, even faded signs and markings gave the impression of something past it's prime. Strange when our world is still shaped so much by the car that it should look like a relic from a previous way of living, I assume this is more to do with the centre of gravity shifting in Hull away from this area.
I'm quite attracted to the absolute brutalist, utilitarian design of multi storeys, there is no sense of beautification. However the top floor afforded great views of the city and the murky day added to the atmosphere. For me this was a pretty fascinating find and made me think about how quickly things change in the modern world. Concrete is such a permanent material yet everything suggests this building has outlived it's useful life. If buildings had memories I imagine this one would be able to reminisce about the evolution of car design across the last 40 or 50 years.
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