Glazing The Hall Of Fame

 

Markthal is designed to be a sustainable combination of food, leisure, living and parking, fully integrated to enhance and make the most of the synergetic possibilities of the different functions. The hall has been created from an arch of privately developed apartments, strategically allowing private investment and initiative to provide a public space. The result is a covered square which acts as a central market hall during the day and, after closing hours, is a lively ensemble with restaurants on its first floor. Its shape, the colourful interior and the height makes Markthal the unique spectacle that it is. The combination of an apartment building covering a fresh food market with food shops, restaurants, a supermarket and an underground parking is truly one of a kind and found absolutely nowhere else in the world.

 

It was in October 2004 that the team of Provast developers and MVRDV won a competition organized by the city of Rotterdam for the design and construction of a market hall at Binnenrotte. The municipality wanted to extend the existing open air market with a covered addition. The building needed to be as open as possible to attract the public and at the same time had to be closed due to weather conditions. Keeping the closure as transparent as possible, a cable net façade was chosen which needs very few constructive elements. Its principle is similar to that of a tennis racket in which the steel cables are used as strings in between which the glass is mounted. This cable net façade is the largest of its kind in Europe. The art piece inside is visible from the outside and its lush shapes and colours invite the public to enter the building. 

 

There is no backside to Markthal; all sides are accessible. There are six separate entrances through which residents can reach their apartments. At the ground floor, the elevator is located at the inner façade while at the top floor, it is towards the outer façade. Each elevator hall services a maximum of four apartments, two of which have windows to the market and all have large glass fronts towards the outside. The apartments strictly adhere to the Dutch laws regarding natural day-light which means that all rooms that require natural light are situated on the outside. The front and backside are covered with a flexible suspended glass façade that allows for maximum transparency and a minimum of structure, which is the largest of its kind in Europe. Half the apartments have windows to the market and these windows are triple glazed to avoid distractions pertaining to sound and smell.

 

As much as it is known for its architectural aesthetic, Markthal is also a lesson in sustainability. It is the recipient of the BREEAM Very Good certificate. The tenants of Markthal are signatories of a Green Lease Agreement that lays down the sustainable performance requirements. This encompasses the use of water, energy, waste and the use of healthy construction material. The building is connected to city heating and a thermal storage system underneath, which will also heat and cool a number of adjacent buildings in the surrounding area. Extensive research was done for the hall to create a comfortable interior climate with extremely low uses of energy. The hall is naturally ventilated and underneath the glass façade,  fresh air flows in, rises towards the roof and leaves the hall through ventilation shafts in the roof. This is a thermic system which can function without any installations. 

 

A central monitoring system is used to exchange heat and cool between the different programmes which makes it possible to use lesser  installations than what are normally used. The combination of housing, shopping centre, parking and market hall also makes the installation technology more efficient. Inside the market, an information panel illustrates the energy use and CO2 savings of the building. A smart sanitation system has also been designed to save water. On the recommendation of an ecologist, four large bat stays have been integrated into the façade while on the first floor, ten nests for swifts have been mounted to the wall.

 

Markthal's unique architecture has won it several laurels, a few prominent ones that include GCSC Award for European Innovation 2016, DE, Rotterdam Architecture Award 2015, NL, WAN Mixed Use Award, UK, ESPA Gold Award, 2015, NL - for underground car park, among others. With its inimitable style and inherent sustainability, Markthal rightfully deserves to be in the hall of fame.