BDES1020 CONTINUOUS CITY<RUI TAO ZHU>

Abstract

My site, the northern end of the Great Square of Isfahan, marks the start of a network of bazaars which acts as a very central part of the city. Thus it came logically to develop a modern or contemporary bazaar that is to be integrated into the market areas rather than an isolated building that would hugely disengage with the context. The existing bazaars appear as a rather rigid and enclosed complex where each one of them functions independently to another. Traditional bazaars are arranged in a rectangular format, of repeated units/stores centring a courtyard and divided by a central axis that connects the two main portals. The configuration promotes circular movements within itself however constrains its possibilities to communicate with the surrounding areas in a larger context. In my proposed Contemporary Bazaar, the skeleton of traditional bazaars is extracted and physically bended to reconstruct an active organism that stimulates a more dynamic and intimate trading atmosphere. The construction system-a combination of rectangle and triangle and arch/curve coincides with the existing bazaar construction and even the historical one of poles and tents. Therefore it is fair to say that the new bazaar is not something completely modern and inappropriately strange and disassociating but rather it echoes with the existing bazaars on both its functional and aesthetic level. The new market lanes open up to the streets and the adjacent bazaars as well as the Square to attract visitors from all directions. Instead of acting as an enclosed individual entity with definite boundaries, it connects and interacts with the surrounding market areas to together invigorate the free and fluid essence of a marketplace, as shown by the circulation axonometric diagram. The structure of the Bazaar also suggests an area where private and public spaces are loosely defined. The space of the building is not physically bound to limit its accessibility to the public. It doesn’t aim to filter or exclude any class of people thus it serves no purpose of forging a social disintegration of the locally grounded forms on togetherness and shared communal living. The trading stands are in fact mobile and can be packed away in occasions when it would become a spacious pavilion and turn into a pedestrian zone. The civic precinct it creates would comfortably accommodate larger flows of visitors/pedestrians and public and passive cultural and social activities hence benefit social interactions. The undulating roof floating above the structure, visually it realises the vibrant flow of the bazaar. It reinforces the absence of definite structural boundaries which frees any seemingly restricted movements and the porosity of its skin encourages the building to breathe with an inviting gesture. Finally, I believe the proposed Contemporary Bazaar would tightly associate and integrate into the existing network of bazaars and as a result advocate and revitalise the bazaar culture.