Carbon Market Regeneration

Overview

Client

CFI Co-Operative Bank

Location

M.C. Briones St., Cebu, Philippines

Area

106,668sq.m.

Services

Architecture

Concept

Located within the heart of downtown Cebu City, lies the largest and oldest farmers’ market, Carbon Market. Comprising of 2.7 hectares, our objective for this project is to give the Cebuanos a well-designed market structure to accommodate the needs of vendors and consumers alike, to create an environment promoting social interactions for all classes of people, and to establish the market as a tourist destination to attract local and foreign tourists.

Based on the existing site and its conditions, we observed that the site is heavily underutilized. The current plan of the market primarily encompasses the perimeter of the site, leaving the core for the most part, void of pedestrian traffic and an undesirable location for market stalls. Heavy vehicular traffic, the inadequacy waste and sanitation management, and the delapidation of the structure are only the results of the outdated urban design and general layout of Carbon Market ever since its conception; therefore requiring a much needed retrofitting.

The 5-storey market structure rests on 3 adjacent blocks of land, housing wet goods, dry goods and retail shops. The lot across showcases an outdoor park for leisure and recreation. Bridging right above the park and the market is a jeepney terminal, an outdoor sutukil with an accommodation structure for the convenience of consumers and vendors. By applying tropical strategies in our design, we are able to create a sustainable design within the redevelopment and also creates a healthy social interactions of people within the area.

A challenge in designing the market façade was trying to blend in with the built environment and to respect the surrounding historical sites located within the downtown area despite the massive area it encompasses.

The design response was by defragmenting the façade with modular arrays of brick patterns and by applying neutral hues into the design to achieve a sense of humility and respect to its surroundings.