The original “Dude, where's my Porsche?” garage appears to be located in a west London residence, in Britain, and we all know how closely placed from one another houses in London are. Apparently, the owner decided he cannot leave his Porsche 911 to always sit outside in the rain while his spouse has plenty of space for her Karesansui.
Deciding to have one's cake and eat it, he built a car garage that automatically goes down under the garden after parking a car in it. The innovative design is meant to also inspire other people who do not want to exchange their garden space for their parking space, showing that the two may actually co-exist. The designer probably took some cues from the Japanese automatic parking lots, although in a much smaller-scaled version of course.
Of course, instead of a zen garden you can use that space for what ever you like. A children's playground, for example, albeit that may prove to be a bit unsafe since probably no one wants brats falling into their garage every couple of days or so.
The only tricky bit might happen if by accident you forget to evacuate any remaining passengers before “sending your car downstairs.” Also, what would happen if the system encounters an error and blocks your vehicle six feet under? Will it be buried forever? Will you have to bring it flowers? Oh wait, flowers might be already growing on top of it...
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