Problem
The process of arriving in a house, and leaving it, is fundamental to our daily lives; and very often it involves a car. But the place where cars connect to houses, far from being important and beautiful, is often off to one side and neglected.
Solution
Place the parking place for the car and the main entrance, in such a relation to each other, that the shortest route from the parked car into the house, both to the kitchen and to the living rooms, is always through the main entrance. Make the parking place for the car into an actual room which makes a positive and grace place where the car stands, not just a gap in the terrain.
Related Patterns
… once you have the entrance of the building fixed and its transition clear - Main Entrance (110), Entrance Transition (112) - it is necessary to work out how a person can approach the building by car. Of course, in a pedestrian precinct this will not apply; but generally the car itself must have a housing somewhere near the building; and when this is so, its place and character are critical.
Place both kitchen and main common living room just inside the main entrance-Intimacy Gradient (127), Common Areas at the Heart (129); treat the place for the car as if it were an actual outdoor room - Outdoor Room (163). If it is enclosed, build the enclosure according to Structure Follows Social Spaces (205); and make the path between this room and the front door a beautiful path, preferably the same as the one used by people who come on foot - Entrance Transition (112), Arcades (119), Paths and Goals (120), Raised Flowers (245). If you can, put the car connection on the north face of the building - North Face (162) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 553.