Access is the key to unlocking the value in a development, whatever its size or location. Roads and railways join the site to the outside world and connect its buildings, public spaces and transport interchanges, enabling people to interact and helping to create living, breathing communities. Our urban designers and transport planners work as part of an integrated team to create sustainable, easily accessible urban environments in which people want to live, work and play.

As well as being able to travel easily to and from a site, people need to be directed to well lit, safe and accessible car parks. The car park is often the first experience a visitor has of a development, and first impressions count… Our designers work as part of a team with architects and local authorities to provide well-engineered car parking solutions that range from surface and above-ground multi storey structures to basement car parks associated with major building projects.

A car park should be welcoming and user-friendly, with clear circulation routes and bays that are easy to drive in and out of. It should also be open, brightly lit and attractive to make visitors feel safe and visible. One of the structural engineering challenges is to limit the number of columns, as these can obstruct drive paths and make it difficult to park. The quality of the car park environment often determines its profitability, either as a stand-alone unit or as the entry point to (say) a shopping complex.

As a company at the forefront of environmentally responsible development, Buro Happold always aims to implement sustainable infrastructure solutions. By carefully integrating roads and car parks with public transport, cycleways and footpaths our urban designs can help to reduce dependence on the car and give the travelling public alternative, ‘greener’ ways of getting from A to B, perhaps by completing their journey using several means of transport.