Marketplaces
Phrase 1 - case studies
KlongThom Center
Bangkok, Thailand
In the 80’s, the city of Bangkok began to clean-up street market sprawled. The area contains large concentration of shop houses built prior to the common use of cars resulting in shortage of parking space. Both vendors and cars colonising street sides created a huge traffic problem, Klongthom Center was then born. An early mixed used structure, built with hot-rolled steel able to accommodate 300 cars, 500 motorcycles, and over 250 stalls. Its 3.5 stories was based on typical shop houses principle, where the ground floor is used for trades, the next 1.5 floor where ceiling is lower than other levels is used for storage, and the second and third floor are houses vehicles. The stalls are then gridded defined by the columns under the parking structure, with the only goal to accommodate the most stalls resulted in very narrow and clustered space with very poor ventilation, let to the installation of air conditioning later on. The building was then integrated to surrounding shop houses with the help of lightweight roofs, expanding its market space.
Markthalle Neun (Market Hall Nine)
RuamlaborBerlin
2009
Berlin, Germany
Built in 1891, this historic building was designed to be typical European market. Its business strives for decades until late 19th century, the dawn of modern supermarket, it faced bankruptcy. In 2008, the city of Berlin decided to sell the building out to private party, but questions were raised to seek for solutions to restore its former glory. A competition began in 2009, with a goal to revive the building to be once again a community centre, a brief was handed out. RuamlaborBerlin won the competition by working in collaboration with 30 international students under a question of ‘what is a contemporary market?’. Their proposal was to leave the existing structure un-tampered, while based on the same grid system defined by the structure, stalls became kitchens, permanent modularity units became adaptive. The layout of the market changes occasionally based on event set for the time period. Movability was assisted by the lightweightness of pine wood used to constructed the units. It territories expand with the help of internet making food deliveries possible.
RodFai Market (Train Market)
2013
Srinakarindra Rd, Bangkok, Thailand
Originally located near Chatuchak market, the rent contract ended in 2012 which raised the question on how to keep the market alive. In Bangkok, location is everything. It is near impossible to find a lot large enough to accommodate weekend night market. The owner decided to move to the outer part of Bangkok, where the rent is lower, but it is far. Open 4 days a week, with the help of social media and vintage hype of the time, location was not a big issue and more, the problems were parking lot and rain. Parking problem still cannot be solve, and the market is done for the day the instant the rain comes. The temporary part was laid out with 1.75x1.75 meter grid, roll A-T with 47 units in each roll. The grid completely blocked car circulation as it is not wide enough for cars to enter, forcing cars to just circulate around the grid. Merchandise are transport using trolley, where one stall typically has just one cart that they pack everything and leave the market every time the market is closed.
