A guide to specifying system build car parks

Often car parks are required on high value sites close to a primary business activity such as a retail outlet, an air terminal, railway station or a commercial centre. In situations such as these car parking (quality, well designed, well lit and “safe”) can become a major source of revenue. The attributes of offsite manufacture and supply can become extremely attractive. These attributes include speed of construction on site with minimum disruption, predictable performance and cost, and the opportunity to design for reuse on other sites, which gives residual value to the structure and maintains flexibility for later site development - a highly sustainable approach. This guide aims to set out the types of option available to meet various car parking or car storage needs. It also describes when in the design process to consider the procurement options, and to what level of design projects are taken to before detailed requests for information are sent out or tenders issued.