Oct 30, 20233 min read

What is a Market?

Updated: Jan 9

Ontologies & Genealogies, Sem V

Initially for the genealogical study, we saw various markets around the globe and did thorough study of them to see the key shifts they have been through and how really a market happens. What factors should one consider for a market to happen and how does a space around it get form.

We looked at the Targ Blonie Market, Poland as our genealogical study.

Some peculiar things we noticed in the market is that it functions in two ways. While the market days, vending and buying happens in this place but when the market doesn't function, this place is taken up by the local people to sit and play around. Also the corrosion of the roof and hardscape-softscape has been thoughtfully created around.

Then we came to studying the Borivali Market and did detailed analysis of Moksh Plaza for our further identification of problems and opportunities on the site. Our area of study had two extremes i.e, a shopping centre and street vendors, both functioning their own way and contributing to issues on the site. The area of study also had two residential buildings and on it's ground floor were commercial shops. The existing shopping centre had hard glass facade on the road edges and vendors and hawkers utilising the space in the evening hours. The mall holds very less interaction of consumers with minimal affordance of space for the community.

Some problems & opportunities I speculated for the further study were,

problems//

image 01: the edges facing the road were hard glass facades which result in no interaction with the city domain.

image 02:there is only one main entry and exit point to the whole structure with very linearly directed movement.

image 03: currently the corridor spaces have shops on both their sides, one feels like walking through an aisle once within it.

opportunities//

image 01: the mangalkunj society has shops on their ground floor which as clustered accordingly which afford good interaction of consumers and shopkeepers both.

image 02: the vendors who take up the road in the evening hours hold good interaction due to openness, promoting direct visual connectivity with the product.

The main design intend I was focused and developed on after understanding the site specifics and its issues was;

The existence of two extremes of trade i.e. a shopping mall and a street bazaar both with their individual problems on site calls out for a infrastructure which holds both the spatial arrangements together.

How can openness be enhanced by dissolving the hard edge by thinking of shops & stalls happening simultaneously which facilitate each other?

Then I started seeing at how can I enhance the infrastructural competence, transactional capacity and transitional changes in my design, and sketched them in form of diagrams which deliver the idea of space formation and problem solving approach which i intended to bring in.

infrastructural datum//

circulation isn’t directed based on shops around
multiple entries-exits
corridor functions as public space

transactional datum//

clustering of shops
two faces of a unit open
in-between space affords most visual connectivity

transitional datum//

dead wall on non-interactive side
porous edges on road side facades

program diagram//

the facade facing the road are an amalgamation of hawking kiosks and eating stalls.
such clustering will entice the consumers to come inside
multiple entry points can be proposed

Design Drawings and Model

The designed market is a double storey structure which has a porous ground floor which has food stalls and kiosks placed on the road edges, with multiple entries for in-out. The existing shops of the shopping centre are placed behind. Clustering of shops is proposed with two faces open/semi permeable which enhances visual connectivity and formation of social spaces in the in-betweens.

On the firs floor and second floor, some parts of the stalls/shops on the floor below to it consecutively become a gallery viewing the adjacent road. This creates space for recreation, which wasn't found earlier in the Moksh Plaza.