Gargantuan Tunnel-Shaped Marketplace
Written by Jennifer Heyns
If a horseshoe mounted to the top of your doorframe can bring you good luck, imagine what a 100,000-square meter horseshoe can do for an entire town. The mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands, announced just this month that construction of such a building is set to begin. In its entirety, Market Hall will have a huge outdoor marketplace under a tremendous arch, the arch consisting of two floors of shops and restaurants, an underground supermarket and the remainder of the tunnel-shaped building reserved for 228 apartment dwellings.
While the structure is immense, it’s been designed by MVRDV very wisely. New laws in the Netherlands stipulate that outdoor marketplaces must be covered and that residences require a certain amount of natural light. Housing an arched building atop the huge marketplace is a way to kill two birds with one stone. The markets are covered not only by the structure, but also by flexible, suspended glass facades on either end.
The apartments, of which about half are for purchase and half for rent, have balconied living spaces that face the city with spectacular views and plenty of incoming natural light. The dwellings are also designed so that rooms like the kitchen, dining room and storage areas are situated toward the interior of the building with superior noise-cancelling insulation.
Along the interior of the arch, shoppers and diners will be able to see huge displays on the structure walls. The city plans to incorporate the use of LED displays and lights to illuminate those interior walls with gargantuan pictures of fresh produce, like corn and tomatoes.
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