Automated parking system creates additional parking spaces in Copenhagen

Fast and reliable technology for public access parking

In 2018, Lödige Industries delivered an automated parking system for the BLOX building in Copenhagen. The building was designed by Ellen van Loom of the Dutch Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and houses the Danish Architecture Centre. The system is providing parking spaces for public use and serves the museum, offices as well as restaurants and tourists.

About BLOX and the advantages of automated parking

BLOX is located in a busy city area at the harbour front of Copenhagen. Prior to the redesign of the harbour, the area served as a conventional car park. The integrated automated parking system features the palletless CUBILE technology. Operations started in 2018 and both client and users are delighted with its performance.

Due to the need for a high number of parking spaces, combined with the complex architecture of the new building and limited building footprint, conventional parking would not have been able to provide the required amount of parking spaces. The parking density of automated parking systems is higher compared to traditional car parks requiring substantially less space, since the absence of ramps, drivers and passengers in the facility means cars can be stored much closer to each other.

No surface parking and 30% more parking spaces at BLOX

In BLOX, 30% more parking spaces were realised due to automated parking in comparison to a conventional car park. The vehicle measurement system introduced by Lödige Industries for this building created additional parking spaces. The measurement system categorises cars by three different sizes and allowed the additional creation of a further 30% more parking spaces at BLOX, a significant advantage, given the building’s central urban position.

Moreover, Realdania aimed to remove surface parking from the streets and provide a modern user experience for all visitors. The automated parking system is accessible via an underground entrance area, featuring modern parking cabins in line with the overall architectural style of the building. The Lödige parking system in BLOX is extremely user-friendly, as parking cabins can be entered directly from the street and service support is always on site in Copenhagen. In addition to that, the automated system returns the cars by in driving direction to ease the exit from the parking cabin for the customers. Access restriction to parked cars also ensures high security levels.

Precise parking carried out by state-of-the-art machines excludes the possibility of vehicles being damaged. In order to ensure constant availability of the system, Lödige’s 24/7 service also guarantees immediate assistance and rectification.

About the customer

Realdania is a philanthropic association with more than 149,000 members. The association seeks to improve quality of life through the built environment, defined as the physical settings for our everyday life. Realdania is focused on both current and future generations and seeks to promote sustainability and generate new knowledge and innovation. Since 2000, Realdania has supported more than 3,200 projects with a total of DKK 17 billion. Anyone in Denmark who owns real estate can become a member.

Facts and figures

Place:
Copenhagen, Denmark

Completion date:
Jan 2018

Use:
Public car park

Capacity:
350 cars

Technology:
CUBILE

Dimensions of the car park system (L x W x D):
40.2 m x 67.1 m x 7.8 m

Number of levels:
3 (underground)

Gross area / Volume per parking space:
26.1 m2 / 67.7 m3

Time to park a car:
40 - 60 sec per car

Retrieval time:
below 200 sec per car

Challenges of parking in Copenhagen

The harbour front in Copenhagen is a dense busy city area exacerbating the common issue of space limitations.
With a conventional car park in the BLOX building, it was not possible tp provide enough parking spaces due to building's complex architecture and site restrictions.
As the building is on a busy road, long queues had to be avoided.
The client's ambition was to provide enough parking spaces on a limited urban footprint.
Realdania aimed to remove surface parking from the streets and to provide a modern user experience for all visitors.

Solution and benefits

Automatic parking requires substantially less use of space, since the absence of drivers and passengers in the facility means cars can be stored much closer to each other.
The vehicle measurement system introduced by Lödige Industries in BLOX allows the system to categorise cars by three different sizes, ensuring that space within the system is optimised to park the maximum number of cars.
30% more parking spaces were enabled due to automated parking in comparison to a conventional car park and a further 30% additional parking spaces were realized by introducing a third size category to the vehicle measurement system.
The Lödige parking system is extremely user-friendly. Access is provided via an underground entrance area featuring modern parking cabins in line with the overall architectural style of the building.
Precise parking carried out by state-of-the-art machines excludes the possibility of vehicles being damaged.
In order to ensure reliability and constant availability of the system, Lödige’s 24/7 service also guarantees immediate assistance and rectification.