This woodland pavilion in blackened timber provides a collection of amenities for the local community and its visitors, bundled together in three distinct but linked volumes
One space hosts a market specialising in local produce, another a restaurant which prepares food using the same, and the third, a space for events and exhibitions. Although the low, glazed building has a somewhat Miesian appearance, its structural principles are based on the local vernacular feature gangi-zukuri: wooden-pilastered arcades which jut modestly from the front of houses and shops to shelter pedestrians from the heavy snows of the region. Here, this modular framework extends beyond the three main volumes to link them with trellised walkways, which could in principle be covered later or augmented to expand the buildings. This architectural vernacularity reflects the animating principle of the building’s function, inspired by the chisan-chisho local food movement. This was initiated in the 1990s in response to concerns about globalisation and the decline of local agriculture, much like the Italian Slow Food Movement. In the last few decades, markets have often been boosted by critics of the industrial production and selling of food, as evidenced by the proliferation of farmers’ markets in the UK and USA.
This case study is part of Typology: Market hall. Read the full article here
