If you had a boujie car collection filled with iconic classics, how would you show it off? Would you opt for a dusty old barn where all your precious machines can live, or would you find a way to show them off inside your luxury mansion? Apparently, the super rich opt for the latter.
According to a new profile in the Guardian, there’s a design firm in the UK that specializes in creating bespoke garages for the uber rich to show off their wonderful car collections. The company, called Garage Deluxe has designed a series of swanky storage solutions for wealthy clients around the world. As the Guardian explains:
“You wouldn’t keep a Rothko in the basement under the stairs – you’d hang it in pride of place with good lighting and space around it,” says Jonathan Clark, the founder of Garage Deluxe, an architecture practice that “design[s] luxury spaces for luxury cars”.
“We view cars as works of art in their own right, and believe they should be given as much thought as artworks,” Clark says. “But luxury car collections are [sometimes] crammed in leaky old barns. They should be kept in an environment where you can show them at their best.”
The spaces that Clark and his company have designed are incredible and excessive in equal measures. In the profile, he discusses one that planned to place a gleaming collection beneath a glass-bottomed pool. This way, the owner could gaze upon it whenever they were working out or hosting a pool party.
Another design study from the company sought to create a modernist gallery that was dedicated to one clients collection. The double height space would have room for five cars comfortably, with a dedicated entertaining space above offering views of the collection below.
According to the Guardian, projects such as this start from around £2 million, which is roughly $2.5m at today’s exchange rate. However, for clients with collections in need of their own home, “money, Clark says, is often of no concern,” reports the newspaper.
Through its bespoke design services, Garage Deluxe can create spaces with hidden ramps so that car collectors can enter in secret, and even had plans for a project that placed a display pedestal next to one owners swimming pool, so that they could “can look at his Ferrari F40 while doing his morning laps.” Seriously, what is it with rich people and displaying their cars around swimming pools?
Obviously, the projects are all immaculate and put everywhere I’ve ever lived to shame. But what do you think, would you commission a car gallery to show off your collection (if you were ever rich enough to have one)? Or is it better to showcase your cars where they belong: out on the street?
Once you’ve decided, head to the Guardian to read the rest of its interview with Jonathan Clark of Garage Deluxe, as some of his projects truly are wild.