Do you love your car so much that you could go to bed with it or invite it into your kitchen? If so, a team of Berlin architects has designed the ultimate living space for you and your machine: the drive-in apartment.

The idea is simple, yet also faintly disturbing. An elegant but heavy-duty lift — strong enough to hoist an armour-plated vehicle — lifts the limo directly to the loft-style apartment. It is parked in a kind of conservatory with only a large glass wall separating it from the living space.

Whenever you feel the need to stroke the bonnet of your Mercedes you simply slide back the wall — and bond.

“Cars have become design statements, an expression of your lifestyle,” says Johannes Kauka, the managing director of Topos, which is completing the pioneering apartment block in a run-down area of Berlin. “So why not integrate them properly into your life?” The effect is to make the car part of the interior decoration: a work of art that the proud owner can admire from his sofa.

The Berlin model is intended for export to cities that have problems with car theft — St Petersburg and Cape Town have shown interest — or with housing so close to floodable rivers that underground parking is impossible. If the project is a success it will be taken to Brussels, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi, where there are plans to construct car-lofts with space for several limos. They will be on rotating bases so that the Rolls-Royces and Ferraris can be spun gently, like records on a gramophone.

So far six of the eleven car-loft apartments in Berlin have been sold, including one to the chief designer of an international motor company. The smallest - 224 square metres - costs €468,000 (£373,000) while the sixth-floor penthouse costs €1.6 million.

Not a shocking amount by London standards, but locals in the Berlin-Kreuzberg district are outraged. “Smash the capitalists!” has been daubed on the scaffolding and there has already been one angry demonstration. But for someone who can afford a Bugatti (up to €1.5 million) or even a Ferrari (€200,000), the lofts are a snip. Each has a garden of 50 square metres, with an optional putting green. More importantly, the apartments also come with a pampering unit for the car: the bodywork can be washed, moisturised and given antiageing treatment in the comfort of your own home. Wherever you stand in the open-plan flat you can keep an eye on the vehicle.

“The customers all have a special relationship to cars,” Mr Kauka says. “They have petrol in their veins.”

Although the architects are selling the concept as a revolution in design, the real, er, driving force in sales is likely to be fear. The car-loft website (www.carloft.de) hints as much: “Afraid of you car being vandalised? Nervous about dark alleyways and gloomy underground car parks? Your worries are a thing of the past.”

The whole process of approaching the house, entering the apartment and parking the car takes two minutes. That is not only a time-saving device - think of the time and petrol expended in the search for a free parking space — but is also attractive to vulnerable VIPs. The most dangerous moment for a celebrity is when he or she disembarks, or when the windows are lowered. This risk is eliminated, say the car-loft designers, by an electronic system that allows you to open the lift door and take it to your floor without reaching out and pressing a button. You stay in your car until you reach your living room.

The site of the apartment block, Kreuzberg, resembles a war zone every May Day when anarchists run riot, ransacking shops - and setting Porsches ablaze. It has become part of the German rite of Spring. Parked in the conservatory, these cars should now be as safe as houses. Unless, of course, the lift breaks down. Then presumably you can sit in the back of the limo and listen to the car radio.

“These are car fetishists; they're sick,” said Bernd Dressinger, wheeling his bicycle outside the block. “Still, at least you wouldn't have to carry up the beer crate.You could drive straight to the fridge.”

Driven to distraction

— A survey by Kwik-Fit found that 330,000 Britons were staying in a relationship so that they could continue to drive their car

— The same survey this year found that 40 per cent of men sized up prospective partners by the car they drove. Women were worse - 44 per cent admitted to judging men by their vehicle and 230,000 admitted to leaving a partner because their car was not up to scratch

— Last year the headman of Sivapuram village in southern India died and was buried with his car, in accordance with his wishes. A grave was dug with an excavator so that Narayanswami and his 1958 Morris Minor could rest in peace together

— A poll published in December 2006 found that almost 4 out of 10 Americans considered their car to have a personality of its own, while 23 per cent thought of their cars as female, compared with seven per cent who regarded them as male

— A survey by the AA this year found that 15 per cent of British men would rather give up drinking and holidays than lose their car. It said that 4 per cent would rather give up their pets and 3 per cent would prefer to resign from their jobs

Source: Times archives

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