The studio focuses on the question, ‘What is a market?’. It undertakes genealogical studies of key shifts on the structures of markets and their resultant typologies. Through an analysis of these shifts, the studio approaches a given swatch of city in Borivali West Mumbai at the intersection of various market conditions; the Borivali Municipal market, the hybrid conditions of malls and shopping centres and natural markets that have emerged as informal transactions. Through an ethnographic study of the different sections of this site, students arrived at  relevant contemporary programmes for markets. Through a process of diagraming and pattern analysis from the genealogical studies, students developed a spatial diagram for the new market condition. This diagram will be further detailed into an architectural strategy with material assemblies that produce a new aesthetic imagination for the market.  

The vegetable market takes place either sides of the road connecting the villages of Narindrapur and Miya ke Bhakhtan. It is a bi-weekly market that has taken place in the same spot for decades with all the previous vendors still there. 

The new structure was built in 2019; a series of plinths with MS space frames, corrugated sheets as roofs and perforated brick walls at the edges of the market plinths. The building acts as a backdrop for the market and all its activities to thrive. 

Vehicles cannot enter the market space, which leads to all the loading and unloading happening outside the boundary walls on the road. All these walls are 450mm high, keeping the market visible to the passerby and these edges also becomes a seating space for people. When the market is not in use by the vendors, it is open to the public. 

The shops are organised in a way that they create street-like spaces in between them that leads to the ‘courtyard’. An old tree stands in the centre of the courtyard, around which a plinth is raised, which becomes an additional space for the market and a gathering spot for the people.

Section

Diagram

Site Isometric

Dattani Trade Centre

Site Plan

Isometric Drawing

Basement Plan

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Section

Space visualisation