Palilula Green Market

Published on October 26th, 2009

location:Belgrade | size:3096m2 | status:competition

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The competition brief called for an architectural solution for the public space with the changing use throughout the day. Exactly the topic we would choose to work with. According to the brief, green market was to occupy the place in the morning hours, and in the afternoon and evening this was meant to become a public square where different forms of street art would unfold and people would gather and socialize. We thought that either/or strategy doesn’t work, that market and any form of social or cultural activity would work much better in synergy and have developed proposal which provided for simultaneous events.

Endangered with the rise in mass production of food, so called farmers or green markets had the tendency to disappear in big cities, until recently. Yet with the development of environmental awareness, such places have revived and have grown their importance in the supply chain now. Bur more importantly, such places have become gathering hubs for mind like and green oriented folk. Best described as middle class heaven of the present day, green market has become a public scene, whereby the role of social interaction outgrows its commercial purpose. An obvious manifestation of this process is the establishment of delis, restaurants and cafes along the market front or frequent occurrence of street artists amongst the crowds. Other spontaneous events are also possible due to high concentrations of people, but always dependent on their simultaneity and compatibility. We thought that a key to this project was to reinforce this condition by providing infrastructure and room for programmatic coexistence and varied use of the space.

palilula_elevations

Initially, the intent was to connect the lot with the surrounding fabric of the city and make it easily accessible. Each side of the triangular footprint offers a specific way of doing so. South edge is to be obliterated; seamless pavement treatment is to connect the existing street and the new square. East edge is to be altered; existing stairs are expanded to become a piece of urban furniture, inviting social activity along that edge. North side is to become more explicit; proposed building is to define an active street front along the busy road. Pedestrian traffic is given priority over the vehicles, with continuous routes cutting across the lot to stitch up between the existing ways.

explo

Proposed timber canopy reconciles three edge conditions into one spatial form. Its purpose it to provide shelter form sun and rain, so that market and pubic space could operate thought the year. Its cladding consists of louvers, designed to control air circulation and provide protection from weather.

Two parking levels are located beneath the main market plateau. The first underground storey also contains storage facilities and commercial space accessible from the street level. Supply routes are segregated from other communication, and dedicated vertical cores provide for efficient transfer of people and goods. Simultaneously, such cores are structural and have defining role in the spatial organisation at the main level.

Pending on the time of the day, the amount of space used by the market fluctuates. Its foldable stalls are giving the way to open air caf’s and restaurants as the day goes by. The idea is that relation between these two main uses is reciprocal but never the excluding one.

The entire surface area is 3690m2. Proposed building footprint is 1010m2 while reaming 2680m2 is open air space, of which 1318m2 is protected with the canopy. The dominant use is the one of a green market, but room for varied public activities is also incorporated. The most accessible corner of the site is equipped with furniture and greenery to provide a yard for the neighbouring school whose pupils come out in predetermined cycles to fuse with residents from surrounding buildings and random passers whose daily routes intersect here.


credits///design: 4of7///Milutin Cerovic, Ivana Petrusevski, Djordje Stojanovic