Designing the Public Market: Architecture for Gathering, Trading, and Belonging

The making of a place is not a difficult thing in principle; it is enough for people to come together in a regular set location for a purpose or activity, and a space becomes. This does not disregard the fact that a physical element needs to accompany this gathering for a space to become sheltering, accommodating, and alluring. This idea of the space that emerges from intent can most definitely be seen in one of the most ancient of functions, which is food or produce markets.

For a market to become, the architectural element can be as simple as a light roof, which would harbor merchants and offer a non-spoken boundary to the place, or it can be as resourceful as adaptively reusing an existing building or site to fit new needs. Finally, it can be a temporary and lightweight structure pitched for certain events or needs and then removed to be used elsewhere, or for other means.

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All over the world, food or farmers’ markets bring people together for the most basic of acts, to exchange goods and produce, and bring communities together. The relation of merchant and local buyer doesn’t require much, but some room to pitch your table or kiosk. Through the below, we’ll look into a few types of markets created either by designing a beaconing and iconic overhead structure, or by reusing an existing space of significance to the local community.

Statement Roof Markets

Huangchong Market / Multi-Architecture

Missillac Market Hall / LAUS architectes

Nicolas Bravo Market / AIDIA STUDIO

Targ Blonie Market / Aleksandra Wasilkowska Architectural Studio

BREEZZE Market / Dispacement Architectural Design

Guadalupe Market / Colectivo C733

New Guabuliga Market / [applied] Foreign Affairs, Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna

Charras Centre Market Hall Public Car Park and Esplanade / croixmariebourdon architectes associés

Adaptive Reuse Markets 

U-Market / Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten

Yongnian Food Market, Julu Foods Group / Roarc Renew

The Temporary Market

Mané Market / BLOCO Arquitetos

Dadad Market / Bangkok Tokyo Architecture + OPH

Temporary Site of Shengli Market / LUO studio

Temporary Market at MAAT – Museu de Arte, Arquitectura e Tecnologia / FURO

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Coming Together and the Making of Place. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and architecture projects. We invite you to learn more about our ArchDaily Topics. And, as always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.