In a world where Donald Trump, suspicious cops, and local heroes all dream of being Batman, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, someone would have probably built themselves a fully functional Batcave by now.
Molecule, an Australian design firm, can now confirm that to be true. The Batcave is real, it's just outside of Melbourne, and it's full of expensive cars.
Recently, the firm was hired to plan and construct a futuristic parking garage for a client living in Toorak. Molecule's client wanted a garage whose presence wouldn't interrupt the crisp, clean lines of their home's facade, so they decided to bury it beneath the ground.
"The house in its existing state was beautifully sited and scaled on its grounds," Molecule described on its blog. "We felt that any increase in visual bulk would injure this balance and a commitment was made to treat the garaging as a ‘shadow.'"
In Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, Wayne Manor (and the Batcave hidden beneath it) are destroyed when Bruce Wayne's property is set on fire. Rather than putting his work as a masked vigilante on hold while he pieces back his palatial estate, Wayne moves his Batman-operations into the swanky, minimalist Warehouse.
Molecule partners Jarrod Haberfield, Richard Fleming, and Anja de Spa were upfront with their client about wanting to model the new garage after the Batcave. The home's owners can enter the secret garage from the outside by activating a hidden, hydraulically-lifted ramp that's concealed in the tennis court.
"It takes a minute to lift the tennis court,” Haberfield told Domain, “and a minute to close it down.”