Meeting the challenges of
future mobility and cities

  • Demographic

    +2 billion

    inhabitants in cities

    Per 1 inhabitant

    Paris Shanghai New York
    48m2 260m2 98m2
  • Environmental

    70 %

    of the energy needs

    of a building can be covered by natural resources of the undergrounds, thanks to thermal inertia.

Our missions:

  • Enhance the inhabitants everyday lifes

  • Propose a more fluid and digitalised
    customer journey

  • Answer the smart and
    sustainable city needs

Exploring and reinventing
underground urban spaces

To meet developing needs and uses, and bolstered by our expertise in the design of underground car parks, Indigo group offer a new vision of parking of the future that also includes more generally underground spaces. Taking a new approach that incorporates the needs of today and anticipating coming changes, it seems only natural to expand the possibilities that underground areas can offer: how they can be further integrated into urban life, how to offer users more mobility and services, and how to facilitate urban logistics and supply sustainable cities.

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The parking of tomorrow will be open to its environment and at the heart of the mobility and service challenges for the Smart Cities of the future.

Serge Clémente,

President INDIGO Group

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The Carpark of tomorrow must be integrated in the urban fabric to facilitate mobility in the larger sense, from services to energy.

Dominique Perrault,

Architect & urbanist, founder of DPA

A reflection in partnership with Dominique Perrault Architecture, specialist in underground architectures.
To lead these reflections, Indigo decided to work with a strong partner, a specialist in underground architecture, Dominique Perrault and his firm of international architects, DPA. The inventor of the “groundscape” concept and founder in 2013 of the SubLab for designing and reinventing the cities of tomorrow, some of DPA’s most exemplary developments that incorporate and invest in underground spaces include the National Library of France (BnF) in Paris and the EWHA Women’s University in Seoul, Korea.

These focuses are both global and local and lead to reflection on a number of possibilities that go beyond the subjects of mobility and parking; in addition to accommodating vehicles, car parks will become a centre of services entirely interconnected with their environment, acting as an extension of the city above: bringing in light, negating the “above-below” gap, connecting parking and transport, offering vehicle services and even becoming a source of energy.

Paris in 1900

Underground used as sanitary functions thanks to Indigo

Paris in 1970

Cars go underground thanks to Indigo

Paris tomorrow

Car parks is fully interconnected with its environment and become an essential and active part of the city.

© Dominique Perrault Architect for INDIGO Group, 2020

Studying on site
typologies and cities

Underground carparks allow to intensify urban activities while protecting the integrity of the city fabric, including for the most sensitive heritage sites. Many of the most precious city centres of Europe have already been saved through the introduction of underground car parks in keys locations, Paris being one of the most exemplary cases.

DPA has identified 3 metropolitan conditions and 3 site typologies. Although they present different opportunities and require different architectural strategies, the general tendency is towards the development of a thick city floor that includes a variety of services relative to mobility at large, and also beyond: vehicle handling, passengers management, goods logistics, energy production as much as light industries and cultural venues.

Proposing a new vision to
address any typologies

Carpark Retrofit
Deep square / Market hall
Deep avenue
Deep ground

© Dominique Perrault Architect for INDIGO Group, 2020

Carpark Retrofit

Reconversion of existing underground carparks through programmatic diversification.

  • Reconversion and Upgrade of Existing Infrastructures
  • Connections to Street, Transports & Nearby Buildings
  • Slab Openings & Reinforcements
  • Local Mobility Hub
  • Light, Air & Access Groundscaping
  • Programmatic Diversity

© Dominique Perrault Architect for INDIGO Group, 2020

Deep square / Market hall

Public space with integrated underground amenities servicing a square and a market hall.

  • Public Square with Underground Amenities
  • Integrated Sustainable Solutions for Short & Long Supply Chains
  • Fully Serviced Ground
  • Multi-function Markethall (optional)
  • Pendular Parking Optimisation
  • Light, Air & Access Groundscaping
  • Programmatic Flexibility

© Dominique Perrault Architect for INDIGO Group, 2020

Deep avenue

Multi-level street infrastructure unrolled below the main circulation axis of dense metropolises.

  • Flexible Lower-ground ‘Twin-street’ Level
  • Linear ‘Unrolled’ Spatial Principle
  • High Circulation Potential
  • Regular Vertical Access Points
  • Connection to Neighboring Businesses
  • Light, Air & Access Groundscaping

© Dominique Perrault Architect for INDIGO Group, 2020

Deep ground

Thick common ground providing integrated services and utilities to the buildings above.

  • Scalable Principle from Buildings to Blocks
  • Real Estate Value Optimisation
  • Collective Sustainable Utility Plinth
  • Continuity of Connections
  • Integrated Urban Strategy
  • Light, Air & Access Groundscaping

Definition of programmes to develop in underground spaces areas to diversify and enhance inhabitants’ everyday life

Floor 0

Micro mobility

Dynamic signage

MAAS Integration

On-street Management

Smart valet parking zone

Garden / Shared gardens

Shops

Last mile delivery

Charging points

Services HUB

Mobility HUB

Cultural venues / Theatres

Dark kitchens

Third places / Fabs-labs

Fitness Club

Hostels

Vehicles car parking

Autonomous parking

Agriculture

Vehicles car parking

Archives / Storage

Deep logistics

Data center

Water treatment

Energy storage

Geothermy

Non human industries

If you wish to find out more

« Carpark Futures Opportunities in the Underground »

INDIGO Group wishes you all the best for 2024

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