the Municipal Market and Public Parking in Larnaka
European Architectural Competition for ‘the Municipal Market and Public Parking in Larnaka’
Status: competition entry
Principle Architects: Maria Hadjisoteriou, Alessandra Swiny, Michalis Georgiou
Collaborators: Mark Rist, Alex Otiv
Location: Larnaka, Cyprus
Date: 2011
This project ‘EPHEMERAL BOUNDARIES’ was a participation at the architectural competition for a municipal market program adjacent to a multi-story parking lot. The site is in the historical center of Larnaca, very close to the coastal line.
The challenge was how to allow public flows to penetrate through the site, through built and open areas, within such a dense required program, thus respecting and answering to a physiognomy of the traditional market.
Our proposal approached the idea of the market as a public space accessible to the users of Larnaca. We interpreted the boundaries along the streets, as blurred “EPHEMERAL” BOUNDARIES” that allow transformation and adaptability depending of the time of the day and night and the events that the municipality or other social groups will organize.
A core was created in the center of the development, out various combinations of the module_ market box. The boundaries between the module and the path around it was again negotiable. The user seller and the user buyer could alter their environment and allow soft transformations to take place. At the upper part of the market, an entertainment area, reversed the lower level layout. The core became a courtyard and the path the enclosed space. Creating in this way a small relaxing area where people can interact.
A variation of public spaces, continuous urban flows, can be defined and redefined by this layering of “EPHEMERAL BOUNDARIES”, allowing the user to become active in this investigation.
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