Car park design

The Institution's Design recommendations for multi-storey and underground car parks has set the standard for car park design since 1976. After more than 45 years and four editions, this guidance builds on that legacy to provide completely revised and updated information for anyone involved in car park design, construction, maintenance and reuse.

It reflects the significant changes to vehicular size, weight and manoeuvrability in recent years, to offer modern guidance on parking bay sizes and deck loadings. Hybrid and electric vehicle use, together with the need for inclusive design and a far greater emphasis on sustainable solutions, have necessitated a completely new approach to internal layouts and other requirements for structural design - including the minimisation of fire spread. There are also chapters dedicated to futureproofing, quality control during construction, suicide prevention measures, asset management, and special (robotic) car parks.

The guidance is based on UK design methodologies and practice (and where possible/appropriate, has considered any likely updates to the Eurocodes and Building Regulations) but the principles have global applicability.

Mark Pundsack - Chair
Mark is Assistant District Surveyor at the City of London. He is an experienced Building Control Officer with a particular interest and specialism in structural engineering and fire. He has been involved in assessing some of the largest and most complex schemes in the country, including a number of very tall commercial towers. This involvement has spread from early design, through approvals, inspections from foundations to occupation, and some interesting factory inspections in Europe and China. He manages a group of multidisciplinary building control professionals; ensuring the safety, accessibility and energy efficiency of buildings withing the City of London. He is vice chair of the IStructE's Safety, Health and Wellbeing Panel, and a member of the Business Practice and Regulatory Control Committee. Since the Hackitt report, Mark has been much involved in providing advice to government on the future of building control, including being a member of Raising The Bar WG6, and the Future
of Building Control Working Group.

Chris Whapples - Overseeing Consultant
Chris has more than 50 years' experience as an independent Parking Consultant and was involved in the preparation of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of the IStructE's Design recommendations for multi-storey and underground car parks guidance. He has been responsible for the design and construction of many car parks both in the UK and internationally, and was deeply involved in the development of the patented Vertical Circulation Module (VCM) system. He was a member of three winning teams for the Best New Car Park Award and the Best Refurbishment Award before progressing to the British Parking Award's panel of judges. Representing the British Parking Association (BPA) Chris worked in association with the Transport Research Laboratory in developing new standards for testing vehicle impact barriers, and with the Building Research Establishment in evaluating fire spread in car parks. Specialist knowledge of car parks has enabled him to co-author the ICE's Recommendations for the Inspection, Maintenance and Management of Car Park Structures (2nd edition), and to sit on several European Technical Committees relating to durability, repair, inspection and maintenance of concrete structures. He is a joint author of the first edition of the Car Park Designers' Handbook, and has written and presented several specialist papers to promote the betterment of car parks. Chris was chairman of the BPA's Parking Structures Group. He was presented the Ernest Davies Award in 2006 for advancing parking knowledge, and ultimately the BPA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, for his outstanding contribution to the sector.

Peter Guest
Peter has been involved in parking for more than 50 years. Starting in policy research at the GLC in 1972 he was later involved in street parking management. He became involved in parking technology - as a member of, and later chairman of - the British Standards Committee, and the UK's representative on the European committee. He moved to consultancy in 1987 and worked both in the UK and internationally, including World Bank studies in Europe and Asia. He joined a specialist car park design consultancy in 1997 as a partner, working on projects dealing with all aspects of parking. Since 2003 Peter has been self-employed. During this period, he designed and procured the Abu Dhabi Parking programme MAWAQiF, probably the biggest parking project in the world. In 2023 Peter received the BPA's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is now semi-retired but continues to write for Parking Today, and is a member of the Temecula Group; a US parking industry think tank.

Dan Gullock
As project architect at Arup Associates and Hawkins\Brown, Dan worked on nationally significant transport infrastructure projects including the High Speed 2 Birmingham Interchange and Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road Crossrail Stations. As co-director and founder of Fatkin, he has subsequently designed and delivered multiple transport hub and movement strategy projects across the UK for clients including Network Rail, various
NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, universities and major developers. Dan regularly undertakes architectural CRE duties on Network Rail projects and has an extensive knowledge of car park construction. He is passionate about innovation and design quality.

Alan McBryan
Alan is a Regional Director in the AECOM London office with over 25 years' experience in the design and delivery of building services projects. With a broad range of experience from master-planning and concept designs through to detail design and construction activities, Alan's experience on projects ranges from offices, data centre/mission critical, mixed use, retail, through to industrial and leisure projects and of course car parks. An electrical engineering graduate from The University of Birmingham, Alan has spent part of his career in Dublin and Singapore, but is most familiar with the UK, having joined the AECOM London team in 2004. Alan's recent experience is in leading AECOM teams on major projects and he is comfortable dealing with all aspects of buildings including sustainability and fire, as well as core building services systems.

Fiona Petch
Fiona is a co-director and founder of Fatkin, an architecture practice specialising in transport infrastructure and healthcare design. She is experienced in planning strategy, stakeholder engagement and public consultation. Based in London, Fiona is passionate about active travel and sustainable design in transport across rural and urban areas. She is committed to broadening access to architecture and transport design for people not traditionally represented in these industries, and is a mentor to young people and visiting lecturer at institutions including the London School of Architecture and the University of the West of England.

Peter Robery
Peter is currently founder director of Robery Forensic Engineering Ltd and Visiting Professor in Forensic Engineering at the University of Birmingham. Formerly he was Technology Director for Transportation-Europe with Halcrow/CH2M Hill specialising in concrete materials technology, durability, inspection, testing, repair and protection of structures. He has worked for Maunsell/AECOM, Harry Stanger and Taylor Woodrow Construction. A Past President of The Concrete Society, Peter is currently Chair of BSI B/517/8 (Concrete protection and repair). He teaches concrete deterioration, maintenance and repair at the Universities of Birmingham and Leeds. Peter served on the Task Group of the IStructE's 3rd and 4th editions of Design recommendations for multi-storey and underground car parks, as well as the Steering Committee for the first and second editions of the ICE's Recommendations for the Inspection, Maintenance and Management of Car Park Structures.

Russell Simmons
A Chartered Construction Manager and Chartered Building Engineer, Russell is the founder of Stripe Consulting who specialise in the car park built environment. He has been chair of the Parking Structures Group at the BPA for 10 years and also chairs the suicide prevention group and fire risk in car parks group. He has contributed to industry publications, appeared on television and spoken at many high-profile events on the subject of car park design and construction. He is a winner of Parking Professional of the Year, and Young Parking Professional awards. In 2019 Russell joined the large construction group Ballast Nedam and started Ballast Nedam Parking Ltd in the UK and grew the car park design and build division from GBP0 to over GBP20M revenue. Russell is currently CEO of Ballast Nedam UK, which is the parent group for multiple Ballast Nedam business units in the UK.

Jeff Stewart
A Chartered Structural Engineer and past chair of the IStructE's Southern Regional Group, Jeff is currently the Technical Director of Ballast Nedam Parking Ltd, part of the Ballast Nedam UK Group, who specialise in the design and construction of multi-storey car parks. He has over 25 years experience in the design and construction of multistorey car parks - having held senior roles in some of the UK's leading car park specialist design-and-build contractors over this period. Jeff was also part of the IStructE Task Group responsible for the 4th edition of Design recommendations for multi-storey and underground car parks.

Chris Watkins
Chris is a senior consultant within Arup's Access and Inclusive Design team. He has been working in the equality and inclusion field with a focus on disability equality since 2010, including as an NRAC accredited access consultant since 2018. He currently specialises in inclusive design in public realm and transport infrastructure, focusing on streetscape, rail and aviation sectors. His current projects include assessing the impact of public infrastructure on equality and inclusion for different gender and LGBTQIA+ groups, and ensuring that the needs of people who rely on private vehicles and cycles as a mobility aid are considered in the design of our towns and cities.