Market as an Urban Park

(Student Project)

Project Description

The project expand to include a larger network of food providers, space for cooking courses, educational courses on healthy eating and agricultural practices, as well as provide immigrant outreach programs. In addition to food stalls, classrooms, meeting rooms, and offices, a flexible lecture/performance space also be an important part of how the market engages with various communities. The performance hall in the center of this area, attract more people to gather together and stay longer.

In addition, to the market, the project including a mixed-income residential component, which would help to densify the downtown area and to activate the market. Half of the housing units is a city resource to help incoming immigrants to start a new home, the other half is for mixed incomes.

Design Challenge

The project site design origins from a checkerboard structure, it provides the biggest sprawl and coverage possible. Then cutting out some blocks to create small or big open spaces. The key design features are to create a disordered movement happens in well-situated functions. This concept is getting inspiration from our regular eating space. The layout of the table, an architecture ordering of place, status, and function. A frozen moment of perfection. Then the meal comes out and begins to undermine the apparent function, it disturbs the stability of the architectural order. When we trace the meals' track, the disorder pathways constructed. The more disorder track we create, the more time people spend in the area, and it's better for the commercial place.

Physical Context

Downtown Guelph is going through many changes and has a long term urban renewal plan designed to help densify the downtown area, to make improvements to the existing streetscape, and to help make downtown more pedestrian. Two immediate improvements are currently underway on either side of the site. To the east, the Guelph Police Station is being renovated and expanded, and to the west, a new parkade is underway on Wilson street. The project creates several tunnels underneath the track, encouraging people to go through from the tourism landmark to our place. Downtown Guelph needs more public area and open nature space for them hanging out. The green roof gives them a chance to climb up on a certain slope and go up and down to enjoy their shopping time. The green path even continues to the riverfront. So it makes a close connection with the city.