Archinect - Stocking the City

The King of Fes ...

2012-10-29T12:54:00-04:00

... and the real Morocco

Fes street market, outside the old medina

My bus arrived in Fes at 5:30 in the morning, where Dany (aka, Abdulraheem) was waiting to meet me, although we were more than 30 minutes late. Dany’s brother-in-law, who had approached me in the Tangier bus terminal the night before under the guise of a ‘tourism officer’, helped make the transport arrangements. I didn’t exactly have a better plan.

Dany’s ‘taxi’ turned out to be a Toyota Land Cruiser, complete with a roof rack and one of those giant chrome bumpers that always make me think the driver is prepared to hit a moose, or in this case, more likely a donkey. I wanted nothing more than to find my hostel and crash, but when Dany asked where I was staying, he just laughed.

“Do you know there are 9,376 streets in the medina? You’ll never find it in the dark.”

“Yeah, but I have a map cached on my phone. I’ll be fine.”

“What?”

“Nevermind. I’m sure it will be okay. Please just drop me o...

Nature Calls

2012-10-09T20:02:00-04:00

The next post relevant to my research on food markets will be up shortly. In the mean time, I recently received an email from friends at Hyphae Design Labratory in Oakland, which is more than worth sharing. The design lab has been selected to participate in the San Francisco Urban Prototyping festival this month, with an urban 'furniture' prototype they've dubbed, the PPlanter.

Film still from Hyphae Design Lab's PPlanter promo

According to Hyphae, "PPlanter is a rapidly deployable, reconfigurable public urinal and sink that uses modular biofilters to treat urine and wastewater. A network of sensors for automated monitoring and a responsive web application enable public feedback and participation in the design of future iterations."

Check out their indiegogo page here, for more info or to make a donation to the project.

If you've frequented your share of music festivals, you might recognize a trend. Following Aandeboom's P-tree, which "augmented the landscape" at...

Berkeley Thesis 2012

2012-10-03T15:51:00-04:00

For a brief break from my usual travel-research commentary, I present for your viewing pleasure, casual perusal, comment, critique, etc - a selection of projects from the 2012 Berkeley M.Arch thesis, in no particular order, and not necessarily a "best of". Enjoy!

Pablo Zunzunegui: Phytopia

Set in a speculative future, the project explores the reinsertion of man into the Amazon without compromising either one’s existence. A new ecosystem is created, where machine intermingles with the native ecology.

The explorer and conquistador, Francisco de Orellana, believed that the Amazon was the home of a very sophisticated and populous civilization where everything was made of gold and food was abundant. He called it “El Dorado”.

No evidence for the existence of this old civilization has been found, and in fact, the reality is not so prosperous: The Amazon is being depleted and big cities are becoming even bigger. Overpopulation, social and economical disparity, pollution an...

11: Berlin

2012-09-19T10:00:00-04:00

Berlin wall memorial, by Kohlhoff and Kohlhoff Architects. Photo by Chris DeHenzel.

What comes to mind when you think of Berlin? Other than music from Top Gun, of course, you may have more or less vivid memories of the GDR, the wall, electronic music, guys (and girls) with arm sleeves and black mohawks, empty warehouses full of experimental art – and if you’re an architect, maybe also the Reichstag, Jewish museum, or the proliferation of informal urban installations. What probably doesn’t stand out is the food. According to Nikolaus Driesen, co-founder of Markthalle Neun, that’s because the city of Berlin doesn’t have much of an established food culture. Or, at least it's been a while.

Collage from http://www.markthalle9.de/

Markhalle Neun is a new market concept in an old market building, one of 14 market halls that were constructed in Berlin during the late 19th century. Built in 1891, it is one of only four halls left remaining after WWII, but it hasn’t been used ...

10: In Copenhagen, the hottest thing since sliced rugbrød

2012-08-03T11:21:00-04:00

The new Torvehallerne, Copenahagen. Photo: Arkitekturvaerkstedet

Copenhagen’s IsraelsPlads was once home to a vibrant outdoor market, which took place daily in the plaza until the mid-20th century, when a wholesale market was established in Valby, on the outskirts of the city. After decades of neglect, the site at IsraelsPlads has been revitalized as a public food market, conceived and designed by Danish architect Hans Peter Hagens. Torvehallerne opened in 2011, after 14 years of political negotiations, design and construction processes, and is almost instantly one of the busiest public spaces in a city full of them.

The market site, 2005 and 2011. Image by author

Torvehallerne courtyard, public open space between two market halls. Photo by author

But does it function as a real food market? Unless you’re pulling in a lot more than I did as an intern when I lived in Copenhagen, you might not be shopping there. Then again, if a market should reflect its place, y...

9: Interview with Miguel Usandizaga, Sant Cugat

2012-07-18T07:43:00-04:00

One of the few publications I've seen about the contemporary design of markets was published in 2011 by Miguel Usandizaga, Professor of Architecture at ETSAV-UPC, with Jose Maria Garcia Fuentes, titled Architectural Design of Markets, 2005-2010. The research and design proposals presented in this publication have contributed to the “Barcelona model for Market Renovation”, which was developed through consultation between ETSAV and IMMB, Barcelona’s Institute of Municipal Markets. In the preface of the book, Usandizaga makes a convincing case for why markets should receive more architectural attention. He inquires,

“If markets are so important to cities, then why have their architecture and urban influence scarcely been studied? There is most certainly a kind of taboo about markets. A city’s places of worship may be its heart, and its libraries its brain – indeed, we treat these buildings as such, but a city’s markets are its belly.” (p.10)

Les Halles la nuit, by Robert ...

8: Barcelona - City of Public Systems

2012-06-15T07:58:00-04:00

In an effort to post to this blog more regularly, I will be writing shorter, more casual updates throughout the remaining 7 months of my trip, starting now… from a city called Barcelona.

Public Systems

Last Monday, I attended the First Annual Symposium of Mediterranean Markets, which was attended by representatives from nearly every Mediterranean country in Europe. The event was organized by an organization called the Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona (IMMB), a government program that supports the city’s system of 43 markets through research, redevelopment, marketing and management.

All photos and diagrams by the author unless otherwise noted.

The fact that such an organization exists at all may be hard to wrap your head around. Not only is the city government saying, yeah, markets are cool, they are also funding significant renovation projects (19 in the past 20 years!) that are architecturally significant, relevant to contemporary consumer tren...

7: Planning/Ephemera ... and It's Discontents (Santiago)

2012-06-04T15:15:00-04:00

Santiago's Central Markets

All photos and diagrams by author unless otherwise noted.

Image credit: www.investchile.com

There is a striking contrast between the four main sites that comprise Santiago’s market district, an area that spans the Rio Mapocho near the city’s cultural and business center. These differences highlight shifts in the cultural perception of markets in the planning of urban food systems since the mid 19th century. Currently, development pressure and political ideologies have generated debates about the enduring value of markets in Santiago and elsewhere.

Markets in urban context

Mercado Central

On the south side of the river, just a few blocks from the heavily trafficked Plaza de Armas, tourists crowd-out Santiago residents at the Mercado Central, a market that was once appropriately named. The structure of the Mercado Central was completed in 1872, on a site near the river that had served as an outdoor informal market. ...

The Cathedral of Food

2012-04-18T00:49:00-04:00

When Mexico City’s Central de Abastos opened in 1981, on land annexed by the government from subsistence farmers, it replaced the Mercado Merced as the central wholesale market for the city, but also served to consolidate 80% of the national food distribution in a single hub. Not many tourists visit Central de Abastos, and unless you work in the food industry, you would be unsure how to direct someone to get there (which didn't dissuade people I asked from making it up). Although de Abastos operates somewhat "behind the scenes", it is a fascinating case study because, while less urban and less public, it is the most critical link in the public market system that remains the backbone of Mexico City's food system.

Central de Abastos from pedestrian bridge. All photos and diagrams by the author, unless otherwise noted.

Although urban development has since engulfed de Abastos, the center of supplies, it's location was initially chosen outside the city for reasons reminiscent ...

5 - DF, The Market Capital

2012-03-23T01:33:00-04:00

Metropolis. by Fritz Lang

Sometimes big cities don’t seem so big. You get to know your neighborhood, you have your routine, the same streets, the same sites, maybe hints of a larger system but overall you’re only getting a slice of it. For some residents of Mexico City, especially those that isolate themselves to the enclaves of Polanco or Condesa, the immensity of urban infrastructure may be like the machine of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, out of sight and out of mind. For others, like some of the vendors in the mercados, who commute by public transit up to 2 hours each way into the city’s centers, it probably feels as big as it is – an intense, thriving, gargantuan network of everything, and everything busting-at-the-seams. It might take half a day just to get anywhere outside your neighborhood, unless you try to walk, in which case you will wear out your shoes before you arrive. No wonder every dense urban neighborhood has a mercado! In a city with this much traffic, it ...

4 - Interview, Oaxaca-Style (Part Deux)

2012-02-22T14:36:00-05:00

A recent article in a local Oaxacan news blog described an effort by the municipal government to invest in the infrastructure of its public market system. According to the article (and thanks to my friend Pedro Mora Jr. for the brief translation):

The government will spend 100 million pesos (roughly 7.6 million dollars) to “modernize” six of the biggest public markets in the state of Oaxaca. After remodeling is complete, they plan to implement a program of periodic maintenance. The government has asked to create a panel of representatives from every market to have planning meetings and ease the decision process.

I had an opportunity to interview the most vocal proponent of the modernization effort, the Oaxaca city Director of Tourism and Economic Development, José Manuel Núñez Banuet.

Nunez Banuet addressing vendors at Mercado Benito Juarez.

Photo: http://www.municipiodeoaxaca.gob.mx/

StC: Public markets are no longer an active part of everyday life in most...

3 - The Wholesale/Retail Hybrid, Oaxaca Style (Pt.1)

2012-02-17T20:24:00-05:00

As I explained in the previous post, Oaxaca's food system (plus the local economy and social structure) is built around market events called tianguis. The valleys of Oaxaca are intricately connected by these market days, when people from all over the region migrate around the valley (often by buses or collective taxis, because few people own a car) to buy, sell, trade, gossip, and gawk at the scene, where anything you can imagine is for sale. Frustrated because you can't get convenience items at your local farmers market? I picked up toothpaste and soap from the Etla market last Wednesday, cheaper than the supermarket. You might also find various construction materials, clothing, electronics, a live goat, and possibly a few things that you don't even need. But the mothership of the system is the wholesale market, known as Central De Abastos.

Below is a map of the organizational structure of the Oaxacan food distribution system. From the book, Mercados De Oaxaca, ˆD.R. ...

The "Local" Label

2012-01-30T14:24:00-05:00

Oaxaca

I am a little over a week into my Mexican adventure, the first leg of my fellowship (explained in the initial post if you’re just joining) although my experiences here will take a bit longer to distill into a comprehensive report. I am writing from the city of Oaxaca de Juarez, 6 hours (by bus) south of Mexico City, where I initially intended to spend just a few days, but it turned out to be irresistible. It’s my first detour of the trip, and I expect not the last.

Images from the Tlocolula Sunday market, south of Oaxaca de Juarez

Oaxaca is a city of about 250,000 residents, concentrated in a dense colonial urban fabric, with public food markets creating nodes of social and economic activity in every neighborhood. Even more astounding than the bustling Oaxaca city markets, however, are the tianguis, the traditional pre-hispanic market festivals that occur once a week in the predominantly indigenous towns throughout the Oaxacan valley. The system works much...

Introduction: This Is Not Your Local Food Court

2011-12-26T21:10:11-05:00

You may ask yourself, among other things, why we need another blog about food? What might compel you to continue reading, when you already know damn well how to make a fluffy quiche, and you are less swayed by one person’s opinion than the egalitarian democracy of Yelp? Fear not, because this is not just another blog about food, but a way to think about food as infrastructure that defines and is reciprocally defined by urban development. To keep it interesting for a broader audience, I also promise to pepper the content, eh hum, with various other media, travel notes, exotic recipes, maps, diagrams, and the occasional (potentially) humerous anecdote.

Something about me

My name is Chris DeHenzel. I was born (my mother swears “induced”, so that the doctor wouldn’t miss a minute of the game) during half-time of Super Bowl Sunday, in 1982. Later that year Time Magazine would name “The Computer” the person of the year. My biggest fear, as a toddling explorer in rura...