Tainan, Taiwan
“Tainan’s surroundings, in my opinion, is one of those areas which is so beautiful to me because of its nature, fields, farms, sea, and mountains,” says Winy Maas, founding partner of MVRDV.
“Tainan Market reflects this beauty as it complements the landscape. It is completely functional and caters to the needs for auctioning, selling, and buying goods, but its terraced roof with – eventually – its collection of plants and crops will allow visitors to take in the landscape while escaping from the bustle below.”
MVRDV, The Urbanists Collaborative, and LLJ Architects’ Tainan Market is not only an open-air market serving as an important hub for Tainan’s food supply chain, but also has become a destination for socializing, and taking in views of the surrounding landscape from the building’s accessible roof, thus promoting tourism in the region.
Enlisted by Tainan City Government, MVRDV reinvents the typology of the wholesale market – a building type that is usually housed in simple metal sheds – and turns it into a mixture of a market and a public green space.
The design takes an often-prosaic part of the food industry and elevates it into a place for the public to experience food and appreciate views of the landscape.
It comprises a simple open structure with an undulating green roof that forms a series of rolling hills.
On its eastern corner, via a series of terraces planted with colorful plants and flowers, this roof steps down to the ground, allowing visitors easy access to the top of the building.
The building thus provides an elevated platform from which visitors can appreciate the landscape that characterizes this part of Taiwan, from a building that creates a continuation of that landscape.
On one side, a simple four-story structure contains the market’s administrative offices and an exhibition center where agricultural products from the region can be displayed.
This four-story addition punctures the main structure, providing secondary access to the roof.
In the future, the roof can be further developed, with the possibility to grow fruit and vegetables on top of the structure.
Project: Tainan Market
Architects: MVRDV
Collaborators: LLJ Architects
Landscape Architects: The Urbanists Collaborative
Lead Architect: Winy Maas
Design Team: Hui-Hsin Liao, Xiaoting Chen, Chi Yi Liao, Chiara Girolami, Enrico Pintabona, Maria Lopez, Gustavo van Staveren, Emma Rubeillon, Dong Min Lee, Jose Sanmartin, Cheng Cai, and Yi Chien Liao
Structural Engineers: Columbus Engineering Consultants Inc.
Client: Tainan City Government Agriculture Bureau
Photographers: Shephotoerd
