The recently completed Tainan Market is imaginative, typical of humble wholesale markets by MVRDV. The building is defined by a sculpted, undulating form, imagined as a series of rolling hills, where visitors can walk on green roofs to socialize and enjoy the stunning views.
Tainan Market was created in collaboration with LLJ Architects and is located in Tainan, Taiwan, a city where MVRDV transformed a dilapidated shopping mall into an inner city lagoon.
The market covers 12,331 square meters (nearly 134,000 square feet) and takes the form of an open concrete structure enlivened by a undulating roofline and four-story building. Here you will find the market’s administrative offices and exhibition centre. Under the roof, the market space itself is very open to the breeze. According to MVRDV, this, combined with the insulating effect of all the grass and dirt on the roof, means that temperatures remain comfortable even in Tainan’s hot summers. The parking lot is also equipped with solar panels to reduce strain on the power grid.
Shefo Eld
The rooftop park area can be accessed within the administration building or from the east corner of the roof. The roof has a series of terraces that reach down to the ground for visitors to climb. When the project was first revealed in 2019, the plan was to grow vegetables there, but the roof has been planted with flowers and grass and looks very comfortable.
“We now have a park with a patch of grass and flowers on the roof, but the original design that suggested growing crops instead could always be completed,” MVRDV explained. “This turns the roof into an educational farm, where visiting schoolchildren can learn both about how food is grown and the subsequent supply chain that delivers it to their plates.”
MVRDV seems to have a real passion for market hall design, with Glass Farm and Markthal among the eclectic firm’s most interesting work.
Source: MVRDV
