The Contemporary Carport
The means of sheltering your preferred mode of transportation is as old as the horse and cart.
The term 'carport' originated from the french word 'Porte Cochere', which was common in 19th century homes to provide shelter for stepping in out out of horse drawn coaches and buggies.
In 1909 the Prairie school adopted a trend to include an open covered structure to shelter automobiles and called them 'auto-spaces'. It was apparently Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s who used the term 'carport' when designing his Usonian homes. “A car is not a horse, and it doesn’t need a barn,” he told his client. “Cars are built well enough now so that they do not require elaborate shelter.” He also believed the enclosed garages promoted clutter.
Today it's certainly true that the modern garage can end up being a rather large storage zone. In this renovation, the clients were familiar with the benefits of a carport. We designed a combination of a separate workshop storage room (because yes you do need somewhere to keep your toys and tools dry and secure) and an open carport for parking.
With the project now completed it has been great to see how the floating roof and simple open space also encourages a greater engagement with the street and reduces the 'garage door' dominance on the front elevation. The spaces are certainly cleaner, less cluttered (you were right on that point FLW) provided you have allowed for additional storage areas elsewhere.
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