Campa Cave: Cars as Creative Fuel in this Garage Studio

For Manu Campa, the studio was decided the moment he saw the light.

After years of searching through spaces that never quite worked, it wasn’t size, location, or layout that made the difference. It was natural light.

“If my studio didn’t have natural light, it wouldn’t be my studio. It’s essential for me to be able to paint every day,” he says.

Across Garage Visits, we often see spaces shaped around cars or around craft. Rarely both in equal measure. Campa Cave sits somewhere in between, functioning as both a garage and an artist’s studio, where painting and automotive culture share the same space.

What Manu found was not immediately obvious to anyone else. The abandoned space was cold, empty, and largely overlooked. But the potential was clear. Over time, through renovation and use, it became something more defined, a garage and studio shaped around two constants in his life: painting and cars, similar to other spaces built around a mix of creative work, mechanical focus, and daily use.

The vision Manu had was always there, but it evolved alongside his career. Ideas came from travel, from garages he visited, and from spaces that stayed with him long after he left. What exists now is the result of that process, layered gradually over time.

One of the first objects to arrive set the tone. A coffee table built from a Porsche 928 V8 engine, sourced from the U.S. It arrived early to an otherwise empty room, a playful and symbolic marker of what the space would become.

The layout is intentionally divided.

At the front, the “noble” zone, a more social space acts as a point of entry. Cars sit alongside a pool table and a driving simulator, creating a setting that feels active and informal. It’s where clients and friends are welcomed, where the garage operates as a place to gather.

Behind a velvet curtain, the atmosphere shifts, a separation that allows distinct zones to exist within the same overall space.

The studio itself is stripped back and controlled. White walls, an abundance of natural light, and only the essentials: canvases, easels, and paint. The contrast is deliberate. The darker, more industrial tones of the garage give way to a space designed entirely for focus.

Cars are not decoration here. They shape how Manu thinks and works, fueling his creativity.

“It’s almost an obsession,” he says. “I’m constantly spinning ideas, planning new series with models, or dreaming about my next acquisition.”

The overlap between his work and his passion is complete. One feeds the other.

Over time, a variety of cars have moved through the studio, including a Caterham, a Jaguar, and a three-wheeled Morgan. Each one temporary, but each leaving a trace, whether in the way the space is arranged or in the ideas that follow.

Porsche remains a consistent presence in the space, both as subject and object, reflecting Campa’s long-standing connection to the brand and its design language.

A typical day starts simply. Emails, calls, reviewing projects. Eventually, he picks up the brush and immerses himself in painting.

There’s no strict structure, but there are small rituals that mark the end of a session. Brushes are cleaned, paint containers are closed, and the space is reset for the next day.

Visitors rarely expect what they find. The brightness. The warmth. A space that merges functionality with aesthetic precision.

Manu is a natural aesthete, but practicality is always present. The studio must accommodate multiple cars without compromising its usability or its visual clarity.

For Manu, the studio is not something to complete. It’s something to live with.

The goal is not to redesign it, but to let it evolve. As his work shifts, as different cars pass through, the space adjusts with him.

More than a place to paint or store cars, this garage studio reflects how Campa moves between disciplines. Cars influence the work. The work influences the space.

It’s not just a garage, and not just a studio. It’s both, fully intertwined.