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<QSPKFDUGJMF°DIJOB>Longba Town, Hubei Province, China
Describing Architecture Studio
Fresh Food Theatre
Photography by He LianThis new community fresh-market in the Hubei
Province town of Longba is an imaginative
reinterpretation of a long-held set of traditions.
Wet markets are still very much a central
player in modern China (and Asia), acting as
something of a social gathering zone and shelter
for communities and neighbourhoods of cities.
They are always low-budget affairs, and this was
no exception. So DAS had to find a way to inject
a bit of design integrity into a typology that often
doesn’t even require architects.The talents began with the most fundamental
unit of market programmes: the individual
seller’s stall. Laying out a logical grid of these
at the centre of the site, they then marked
each in modest rooftop lantern pop-ups that
deliver daylight to the centre of the broad
plan. The rest of the flat roof is a no-nonsense
affair of steel and corrugated aluminium. By
reversing or turning the skylight lanterns 90
degrees towards one another, this creates an
interesting roofscape visible from other parts of
the town, and from the hills surrounding it. As
well, it allows the skylights to capture different
quantities of light depending on their orientation,
through their translucent vertical panels.
Then, to finish the scheme, the almost-flat roof
extends outwards to bend and curve into the
surrounding context in useful porch spaces that
serve the community in rain or sun. Even at
night these auxiliary spaces come in handy for
gatherings, repose, a game of chess, and so
on. On market days or special occasions, the
porches allow the facility to expand in size, with
extra space for other vendors.The stalls are simple concrete pavilions. The
high ceiling lends a festive air to the market, and
promotes natural ventilation. The posts holding
things up are intentionally slender, like a forest of
young trees laid across the floor. If you see the
market from above, its roofscape seems like a
metaphor for the town itself: a broad, irregularly
edged collective with individual clusters at its
centre. On a dirt-cheap budget, Fresh Food
Theatre has found originality.