A fair few articles last year were based around imaging future shapes for car dealerships, and the consequent changes these adjustments might bring to the experience the real estate might provide.

All the posts (I think) were predicated on keeping the cars. But what might happen to the places we’re building should the current usage need a more radical change? After all, many of the refurbishment projects we’re involved with often demand relocations and that can leave the old spaces looking a little, well, forlorn. Ok, abandoned, then.

It might sound like an odd idea but the architecture of a car dealership can lend itself to all kinds of potential reuses. The sites, while marginal with tricky parking are often on industrial estates or close to residential areas. As such, the built asset could offer an interesting re-use model, as the architects at estúdio AMATAM have demonstrated at this conversion into a gym / fitness space.

Clearly whichever automotive brands were retailed and cared for here have long since been erased. But is it such a stretch (sorry for the pun) that some of the larger dealership groups, looking to extend a franchised relationship with their customer base might want to to look to alternate uses for some spaces?