Plug-In_Cities
Woodbury University, SD / Thesis Advisor: Michael Hoffman
UnderGraduate Thesis
Mexico City Marketplace / Mexico
By identifying the salient characteristics of one of Mexico’s essential cultural institutions, the market, one can posit strategies for how urban, commercial and public space may be synthesized into a fourth space; a hybrid space, where the transformational nature of the economic, social, and spatial systems of the city can be incorporated and facilitated. The goal is to develop a new urban building type, with tectonic richness that can comment on the present and simultaneously recall its lineage. A revolutionary system will replace the marketplace roof, with a system of 'Tree' like structures which will respond to several environmental and social situations.
The result of the study was extensive research and diagrammatic studies into the site, surrounding city and local businesses. Connections were made between certain business models and how they interacted with each other over the site. Nodes were created to respond to these pathways and points of interest and formed into the initial placings for the new market roof. The roof is a system of Tree like Canopies, each is independent but plugged into an overall grid of interaction. As the surrounding shops change, people below, and the sun and winds change; the Canopies will warp, distort, open and close to accommodate. The market becomes ever evolving and economically viable, changing its Architecture throughout the day, never replicating a previous form.
