Benimaclet Market: a market as a pedestrian street

The project

Archicercle’s proposal for Benimaclet Market starts with a defining feature of the site: its position on a route between two important locations in the city. The scheme brings this everyday passage into the market, combining retail activity with social spaces serving the neighbourhood.

The positioning of the building is the starting point for the project. The concept draws on the example of a shop placed at the end of a museum route: a retail space integrated into the visitor’s itinerary. At Benimaclet Market, this thinking is applied at an urban scale to conceive the market as a pedestrian street.

The layout opens up the ground floor, placing small retail modules within it. Suspended volumes above accommodate social uses associated with both the neighbourhood and the market programme. The proposal thus distinguishes between retail spaces at street level and elevated social spaces within a shared architectural arrangement.

The interior visualisations explore this relationship through a large space containing low stalls, routes between the modules and volumes overhead. One perspective includes a central staircase and a walkway; benches and planters are also represented among the circulation areas. Archicercle’s documented contribution is the architectural proposal and the organisation of these spaces and routes.

The exterior perspective places the market beside an open space with trees, benches, pedestrians and cyclists.

Processes and materials: fabrication services · available materials · studio machinery.