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Complementing the Tainan Market with a landscaped roof,
MVRDV Completed Wholesale Market with an undulated roof and landscaping, accessible to the public in Tainan, Taiwan.
It is called Tainan Market, the new wholesale market that provides fruits and vegetables to the local community in Tainan.
It was described by Taiwan’s United Daily News as
“the most beautiful fruit and vegetable market in Taiwan”.
The open market designed by MVRDV not only serves as an important hub for Tainan’s food supply chain,
but also becomes a destination for meetings and socializing.
With its undulating green roof, the 12,331-square-meter market overlooks the surrounding landscape from the accessible roof of the building.
The market aims to promote tourism in the area, and in the future,
the roof could be developed further, with the possibility of growing fruit and vegetables on top of the structure.
MVRDV has completed the design of the Tainan Xinhua Fruit and Vegetable Market with LLJ Architects.
MVRDV first released the conceptualizations for the project in 2019 and completed the building in 2022.
Tainan Market is an ambitious architectural experiment
With this project, MVRDV is changing the nature of the wholesale market and reinventing the typology “the type of building usually found in simple metal sheds”.
The project is now turning it into a mix of market and public green space,
and in doing so, the design takes an often small part of the food industry and elevates it into a place for the public to experience the food and appreciate the landscape.
While Tainan Market is another version of the Markthal project that MVRDV has already completed.
Design features
The well-known office project consisting of a market and residences was completed in 2014 and is still an important landmark in Rotterdam.
Tainan Market is located in eastern Tainan, between the city and the mountains.
Thanks to its proximity to Highway 3 and public transportation links,
Tainan Market is easily accessible from both the surrounding farmland and the city,
making it convenient for merchants, buyers, and visitors.
The simple open structure is complemented by an undulating green roof that forms a rolling ridge.
The team has created a series of terraces in the eastern corner,
planted with colorful plants and flowers.
This roof tapers to the ground to allow visitors easy access to the upper part of the building.
The building is designed as an elevated platform from which visitors can appreciate the natural scenery that characterizes this part of Taiwan,
and the market acts as a continuation of this landscape.
On the one hand, a simple four-storey structure contains the administrative offices of the market and the exhibition center where agricultural products from the region can be displayed.
This four-storey addition perforates the main structure, providing a secondary entrance to the roof.
The indoor market space is designed simply and left highly functional under the roof.
The structure was left open on all sides, providing natural ventilation inside through the high, undulating roofs of the building.
Combined with the temperature-modifying effect of the ground and vegetation on the roof,
this makes the building passively cool; to stay comfortable even in the hot summer in Taiwan.
Currently, the roof is used as a park with a lawn in the form of patches of flowers,
but the original design suggested planting crops instead, and it can still be completed at any time.
This will turn the roof into an educational farm,
where visiting schoolchildren can learn about how food is grown and the subsequent supply chain that gets it to their plates.
Tainan Market completes the landscape
The surroundings of Tainan are one of those areas that are very beautiful because of its nature, fields, farms, sea and mountains.
Tainan Market reflects this beauty because it complements the landscape;
it is fully functional and caters to the needs of auctioning and buying and selling of goods.
But its terraced roof with – at the end – its collection of plants and crops will allow visitors to enjoy the scenery while escaping from the bustle below.
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