Giken Engineering Group is the name of a Japanese company that deals with thorny construction problems: How to build a highway in the side of a mountain, how to reduce railway renovation accidents, how to build tidal defenses, where to park your car or bicycle in a crowded city.
The 43-year-old company puts a lot of thought and even philosophy into their solutions--their Five Construction Principles are Environmental Protection, Safety, Speed, Economy and Aesthetics--resulting in some serious out-of-the-box thinking. As an example let's look at their attitude towards parking a car in a city, where Giken has presented themselves with an enormous challenge: They correctly conclude that parking a car "can not be considered a cultural activity which enriches our lives," yet they seek to make it so through clever design.
Criteria for Car Parking Systems (edited)Door to Door Location. "Door to door" transportation is the most effective way of travel, so the ideal location of car parking is in the very place to be visited. However, places where people gather are normally occupied by existing facilities aboveground. Moreover these objective places are spread over populated areas. In short, an ideal "door to door" car parking needs to be medium sized (50 - 70 cars) and installed or built directly underneath every place to be visited.
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