Martin Demonchaux / MARKETPLACES / Phase 04

Design proposal: depiction

Martin Demonchaux / MARKETPLACES / Phase 03

Design proposal: the frame

Bangkok flooding, 2011

          According to the history, the canal was the main transportation road for the residents of Bangkok. The project proposes to reactivate this amphibian identity of the city by reconnecting the canals to the mass transportation.

          Connecting the metro to the klong network increases accessibility to public services in order to involve communities. This ensures better distribution, less traffic and therefore pollution by reducing the cost of infrastructure. The project becomes an interface between the water, the communities and the metro system.

Implantation study model

Ramkhamhaeng muslim community

          The project function in strata that overlap. The level 0 allows the acceptance of water in the structure by the use of floating platerforms occupied by the functions of boat station with waiting space, information, a boat parking, logistic spaces and the space dedicated to the reception of the floating market.

          The middle layer is one of two between the privatization of spaces dedicated to the community and the floating space. It is a place that by its spatiality allows what can not be predicted and forms a public place that can accommodate sports activities (sepak takraw, gym ...) or the installation of tables on market days.

          The high structure in contrast with the massive appearance of the other layers, evokes the aerial landscape of billboards that draws the skyline of the city. It is porous and light and deploys flexibly by its geometry towards the community or to cross the shore. The structure hosts the community activities (cooking, canning, DIY, music rehearsal room ...). It is built in the image of the city by sedimentation.

Martin Demonchaux / MARKETPLACES / Phase 02

Program

        In this second phase, we must think about the uses that will be the right ingredients for the market to be attractive, sustainable and in line with the technological future. This approach by the program is linked to the programs of the markets studied in phase 1 while thinking about the implementation of technologies in the project.

 

        shrimp industry                                                                                                service of plants   

network water sellers                                                                                     product valuation

      Water is a recurring theme in my Phase 1 review where the three markets have built up a different approach to this element.

WATER: A RESOURCE, A RISK, LIVING WITH?

A RESOURCE

        Water is a symbolic element of poetry, spirituality and the source of all life. It has been at all times the vector of the development of our civilizations. Architecture is born of the need to be "out of water" to protect itself from this element as a nuisance for the human being. At the same time, living on water is a dream for many men

Tanka communoty, China

A RISK

       Bangkok is built on a clay ground, only one meter above sea level. It sinks at a rate of two centimeters per year. This natural process has been amplified by anarchic urban development, in particular by the excessive pumping of groundwater.

        Global warming causes rising sea levels and increases the intensity of monsoons. Less than thirty kilometers from Bangkok, not far from the mouth of the Chao Praya River, the village of Khun Samut Chin had to be displaced before being swallowed up by the waters.

        The risk of flooding has also been exacerbated by the disappearance of most of the canals that once occupied a drainage function. The boom of the shrimp industry in the 1980s aggravated the situation, destroying the mangroves protecting floods and pollution to dig ponds.

Khun Samut Chin, Thailand

LIVING WITH ?

  Water can create urban symbiosis by establishing close contacts between districts and uncultivated green land and cities. Progressively, cities can equip themeselves with facilities that enable them to operate in a closed loop, with short supply channels as a backbone. The result is the emergence of farm districts that achieve independence in food.

     Water  is the easiest way to transport goods (90% of traded goods in the world). The Chao Praya and its khlongs bordering on lots of agricultural land and is a genuine and feasible means for transporting produce. To avoid time-consuming intermediate re-loading, the barges are designed to be floating markets. Within a few hours, the market weighs anchor before stopping in another neighbouring district. The barges are progressively emptied of their fruits, vegetables and transformed produce, then load containers of compost and other fertilising agents from public dry toilets. The compost is used as a sort of exchange currency between the urban inhabitant and the farmer who can produce with what the city offers him.

Petroleum platform, Mexico Golfe

                                                         
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Martin Demonchaux / MARKETPLACES / Phase 01

Antwerp - Tha Thien - Khlong Lat Mayom

        The first phase consists of analyzing three markets: one international and two others in Bangkok, one permanent and the other temporary.

        Firstly, the Antwerp's place market is a project that questions the relationship between distances, transparency and light. It allows a new reading of the human scale with a simple structure and a porch which provides an ideal shelter for events that attract large crowds, for example its weekend markets and occasional theatrical performances and concerts.

        Then, Tha Thien's dry products market allows to analyze the ratio to the ventilation of odors. The great work on the framework and the section makes interesting the study of the stands of the sellers.

         Finally, Khlong Lat Mayom's floating market makes it possible to rethink the definition of the floating market by making it very flexible. Here we find mostly cooked products, and being spread out on the ground, many scenarios are offered along the canal.

ANTWERP THEATREPEIN MARKET

        The Theaterplein is one of Antwerp’s biggest squares but before the intervention of the architects it was a space without limits where it was difficult to calculate the distances and to find one’s bearingss. Its large dimensions and absence of elements that might have facilitated some reading of its scale made it an unwelcoming and ill-defined space.

         The project was to construct a large porch in front of the theatre’s brutalist façade, covering a good part of the square. Suspended from a height of fifteen metres, its ceiling consists of translucent plaques that offer protection from the rain while also letting the light through, along with large lamellas that filter it. It is sustained by a reticulated arrangement of very slender, white-painted metal pillars, which are a vertical prolongation of the underground car park. They house the drainpipes for collecting rainwater coming off the roof  and drop water owards a new garden on the south side of the square and outside the cover of the ceiling. 

          The new porch counters the emptiness that madein the past the Theaterplein a desolate place, while also introducing order and facilitating reading of its scale. For all its exquisite lightness, it achieves a degree of monumentality that endows it with the status of an iconic object in the landmark. It provides an ideal shelter for events that attract large crowds, for example its weekend markets and occasional theatrical performances and concerts. In its everyday facet, the square’s slopes and different levels make a attraction for the skateboarders who frequent the space and who can now enjoy it without the rain being a deterrent. The simplicity of the structure thus allows the flexibility of the uses, an essential stake for this kind of project of drawing of the city on a large scale. Henceforth, the project questions different scales, that of the district and that of the metropolis of Antwerp.

THA THIEN MARKET

        Tha Tien is situated behind Wat Pho along the Chao Phraya Rive, it was the trade center of Thailand during the 17th century. The market on the pier was the place where foreign junks were delivered.  It was also an agricultural market reserved for royal members and then during the 18th century it became a flotating market with some shophouses to better sustain the marketplace. At that time, you were more likely to find fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and other daily use food produce. Slowly, it fell out of use and evolved to become what it is today. 

           Now,  you will see a host of small retail vendors selling salted fish, various dried seafood, curry pastes, spices and many exotic items. There are also foods being prepared for wholesale at the Tian Markets, offering a hint of insight into this industry trade in Bangkok. 

          The entry of the market through the passages of shophouses is discreet, the sequence of entry reveals different atmospheres that contrast the city and a more intimate inner world. The Tha Tien Market is also conveniently located in a roofed area, built during the reign of King Rama V. The market is structured according to the frameworl wich fall at the midle of the stands in order to free up the retail spaces. The odors are strong and the number of  flies important but the system of wooden frame sloping in one direction allows good ventilation and therefore the buyer to feel confortable.

        

KHLONG LAT MAYOM FLOATING MARKET

          Khlong Lat Mayom is located in the outskirts of Bangkok at 20 minutes from the center, it is situated in a green area along a canal. Here we are not in the noisy and noisy atmosphere of the bangkok markets. The atmosphere is relaxed under the magnificent roof in bamboo, karaoke resonates throughout the market and frying oil and grilled fish takes us to the nose.

        The largest part of the market is built on firm ground. It is called floating market but the actual “floating” part of the market is very quiet while the non-floating part is massive. The canal here is very narrow and only few boats are parked all alongside the riverbank and below a low bridge, cooking for customers who sit at low tables all along the water. There are just a few vendors who mostly sell things like potted plants and flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables from their boats, with just a few restaurant boats but prepared food is truly why people come here. The inside part looks like a huge food court where you can find cooked products from everywhere in Thailand

     The market is spread over several hundred meters along the canal, which is why different architectural sequences are offered to us but what dictates these different scenarios is always the khlong. One side is dedicated to the fresh market, mostly beautiful veggies and fruits, while the other side sells all kinds of colorful snacks, sweets and cooked food so we could say  how that the definition of a  floating market is a bit stretched, the place being in fact more of a riverside market.