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London.Markets.

Spring.2015

COVENT GARDEN vs SPITALFIELDS MARKET

Markets in cities are places where buying and selling occurs. These temporal hubs of activity attract people not only for this specific ritual but they become the main motive of how the permanent and other temporal programs concentrate around it.

It is interesting to see how over time markets have evolved to being more than temporary buying / selling destinations and have become 24 hour locations that define the character of the place and could be landmarks within the City. London is a good example where the network of markets become an important profile of the City.

From the diverse styles of markets that you can find we highlight  Covent Garden and Spitalfields market as places that still maintain their character but have transformed into places that became greater than just a popular buying/ selling point.

Covent Garden maintained the market structure but it now holds a diversity of activities that even lets the spontaneous street performance scenes interact with the visitors. It is a tourist destination where cycles of different programs activate the area during the whole day.

Spitalfields Market is at the centre of a revival in the eastern area and still maintains its old charm with Grade II listed buildings that coexist with contemporary architecture and new office towers. The contrast between old and new coexists with contrasts of boutique shops, bars and cafes that attract very diverse clientele during the day.

These two London destinations were studied to understand the coexistence between the old and new, physically and programmatically. The adjacent city fabric was looked at and how the city contains these special hubs and how these relate back to their surroundings was reflected upon.

The mapping of physical and experiential qualities, tangible and intangible qualities, would be the key to extract conceptual scans to discover and interpret these sites. The elements to explore dealt with tangible and intangible attributes so that the unseen essence was unveiled:

- Solid + Void / Network
- Activity + Time / Boundaries
- Verticality + Scale / Pattern