Award of Excellence for Albert Cuypgarage Amsterdam

ZJA Zwarts & Jansma Architects has received an Award of Excellence for Architectural Achievement with its design for the Albert Cuyp underground garage in Amsterdam. The award is presented by the International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI) as part of its Awards of Excellence Competition. The awards ceremony takes place today during the IPMI Conference & Expo in Anaheim, California. The Albert Cuyp garage was built to enhance livability in Amsterdam's De Pijp neighborhood and make better use of scarce public space. It is the first parking garage built under an Amsterdam canal.

The parking garage is almost invisible at street level because it is completely hidden under an existing moat, thus blending into the urban landscape. Almost all of the on-street parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the parking garage have been removed and relocated to the parking garage. The former on-street parking spaces were redesigned to create more public space for new playgrounds, plants and plazas.

The City of Amsterdam wants to improve the quality of life and accessibility of the city by creating more space for pedestrians, cyclists, children playing and greenery. To achieve this, the city has taken several measures to reduce the presence of cars in the city and to create car-free neighborhoods. One of these measures is the construction of the Albert Cuyp garage for 600 cars distributed over two levels under the Boerenwetering canal. Contractor Max Bögl Nederland B.V. is responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the parking garage.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the construction of an underwater garage is of minimal impact on its surroundings. The idea behind ZJA's architectural design is to blend the parking garage into the existing urban landscape. All installations are concealed and the ramps are integrated into the existing quay. "Simple and safe" is the motto, and the visibility of the entire garage is as unobtrusive as possible in order to maximize the quality of the public space, which is primarily designed for pedestrians and cyclists.

The parking garage qualifies as a smart garage because the parking system shows users where they have parked their cars. The real cleverness, however, lies in the fact that no square meter of city was sacrificed to accommodate 600 cars. The Albert Cuyp underground garage is an excellent example of how a neighborhood can transform and create more public space for residents in a densely populated city with limited public space. The underwater parking garage can be an example for other cities with similar goals as the City of Amsterdam.