Stuttgart and the surrounding cities are one of the carmakers’ centers, with Mercedes-Benz and Porsche both having their head offices there, surrounded by innumerable component suppliers.
This orientation also shows in the residential streets, even the very new ones.
Americans looking at this photo would seen nothing unusual. Our lives are intertwined so tightly with the automobile — garages and carports being the norm.
This might well be a question of population density and available resources – America is amazingly big, and up to now gasoline is available, albeit for rising prices.
But what struck me here is the sheer hostility of facades that consist of nothing but a huge garage door. Culturally, the way a house opens to the street (or does not) has a certain significance about the relationship between public and private life. Architecture like this seems to cut off a great amount of connection between these spheres.