Mercado Nicolas Bravo | AIDIA STUDIO - Designverse设计宇宙

Located in a remote village of the Yucatan Peninsula, this crafts market is dedicated to empowering the local community by providing a venue where their artisanal creations and fresh produce can be showcased to visitors and tourists exploring the nearby Mayan archaeological sites.

The initiative for its development was part of a government-funded program for the urban improvement of underdeveloped municipalities in Mexico, in this instance, it aimed at linking a growing tourism industry with the needs of the communities in the Yucatan peninsula.

The market offers diverse options that promote and uphold the identity and heritage of Nicolas Bravo, a municipality with a population of under 5,000 people in the state of Quintana Roo. It also doubles up as a community center where activities such as cultural events and workshops promote education and well-being.

The limited budget for construction placed a resilient architecture agenda at the core of the design process. Consequently, we emphasized construction methods and materials that guarantee minimal maintenance over the duration of the building’s life. The building is essentially constructed with three elements: a lightweight steel structure, pigmented concrete block walls, and clay bricks as cladding for the roof and pavement.

The market is laid out on an 8 by 8m structural grid arrayed into a 7,700m footprint housing 50 stalls. An ingenious vaulted roofing structure spans across the market only interrupted by two green courtyards at its heart.

The array of inverted-umbrella structures creates a hyperbolic paraboloid roofing system devised to collect water for irrigation. It is also part of a wider design agenda intended to use form-finding techniques for the purpose of developing architectural aesthetics with an inherent structural performance.

Ultimately our goal is to strengthen a biophilic design philosophy that fosters a connection between the user and the natural environment. This is accomplished through the constant presence of vegetation and by maintaining unobstructed views from the market into the adjacent countryside.