A Brief Look at the Evolution of the Garage

In its most fundamental form, the humble garage consists of little more than a covering and walls to shelter (“garer,” in French, which is where the descriptor for some of Western society’s most average rock music originates linguistically) the family’s precious automobile from the harsh whims of nature, weather, and the jealous owners of less opulent cars. Yet the evolution of the garage, from these practical beginnings, has wormed its way into the hearts and minds of the contemporary homeowner, fulfilling a much broader practical, social, and emotional role than its primogenitors could have imagined. 

Early Origins

Since mankind first invented forms of transport more advanced than the old, faithful one foot in front of another, civilisations have been looking for ways to keep their treasured vehicles safe and sound: there is evidence from as early as 3,500 BCE of outbuildings designed specifically to hold chariots, and of course coaching inns (the precursor to the quintessential Australian ‘hotel’) have offered protection respite to the weary traveller, and crucially their coach and horses, since mediaeval times. Journeys were often long and tiring, and thus, setbacks brought on by weather, theft, or sheer negligence might have cost days, small fortunes, or even lives. While not necessarily the same, or even particularly comparable, to the modern garage, these early proto-garages do explain why the proliferation of garages was, to Western society, a logical next step to widespread car ownership. 

The Garage As We Know It

The advent of mass production (as pioneered by the motor-world-famous Henry Ford) and increased global trade in the years following the First World War meant that car ownership in Australia was rapidly moving from an idiosyncratic luxury before the war to affordable by the middle classes. In 1927, one in every four Australian families owned a car) in the interwar period. 

This trend continued, and, enabled by the scale of military-industrial activity in the Second World War and Australian innovation in the form of the Holden car (thus avoiding expensive import costs and taxes), car ownership was plausibly within the reach of all working Australians within a generation of the onset of the Great Depression. Astonishingly, by 1953, there was one car for every five Victorians, an incredible figure when you consider the prevalence of the nuclear family at the time. Unsurprisingly, then, issues arose over these precious vehicles’ safety, as well as logistical issues vis-a-vis where to put them all. 

As a result, the first multi-storey public car park was built in Melbourne as early as 1938, and private garages on personal property became widespread (as in the US). These garages were the immediate precursor to the sort of garage with which suburbs are now replete, although actually with some significant differences. First and foremost, they were separate buildings from the house itself: a state of affairs which, once resolved, would permanently impact the shape of the modern domicile.

On Door Technology

Although the continued popularity of car ownership doubtless played a significant role, the key to this change was the various door technology revolutions that emerged from America during the Cold War. These fall into two key categories. Firstly, a one-off reimagining of the boundaries of the home, in the form of the internal garage-home door. The significance of this development cannot be overstated, as it marks a paradigm shift between the garage as a separate building for car storage and the garage as an extension of the house – a sort of massively oversized porch – within which one may or may not store a car. 

Nowadays, 71% of homeowners use their garage door as their main point of entry to the house, as opposed to their front door. Secondly, there have been significant changes to the garage door itself over the years, from the original (and impractical) barn-style door, through various sliding and panelled doors, to the modern, remote-controlled, roof-stored door – each innovation has made the average garage more spacious and more accessible, only cementing their place as an increasingly core space within the home.

Today’s Garage: Planes, Refrains, and Automobiles

Given these changes, and in keeping with our re-purposed, post-modern world, many garages these days have strayed far from their original, vehicular safety-oriented purpose. I alluded early to garage bands – as well as music, garages have famously served as spaces for creativity in the visual arts, as studios, as woodworking workshops and in the business world: many of today’s biggest global companies (think Google, Amazon, and Apple…) started out in a garage. No wonder so many people opt to turn garage into office spaces, or home gyms, or even just fun hang-out zones (think “man-caves”): there is a mysterious sense of opportunity that accompanies the modern garage.

Perhaps due to its lack of fully ascribed function (given how efficiently used most of the rest of modern houses are), garages seem to function as flexible liminal (or at the very least, storage) spaces for people to pursue their real dreams or hobbies. In an increasingly homogenised suburban atmosphere, the garage has gone above and beyond its original raison d’etre, to provide a space for passion, creativity, and individuality: long may it last.