De Zwarte Hond, a design agency for architecture, urban design, and strategy, has built a market hall that features net-like columns and beams, elevating the space to another level as a new, modern community space in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Named SuperHub Meerstad, the new market hall is located in the burgeoning Groningen district and emerges as a connecting and interactive social space for the community. 

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Wrapped by a fully transparent glazed façade, the structure is supported by massive cross-shaped laminated wooden columns and beams that give the identity of the market hall and provide "a cathedral-like appearance."

Commissioned by real estate developer MWPO, the brief of the project was to create a multifunctional and adaptive central building for the neighbourhood. 

The SuperHub Meerstad innovative community hub was inaugurated on 2 November to the public.

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Centre in a Green Heart

Meerstad is an up-and-coming district of Groningen. According to the office, the area is popular for its open space, greenery, and the Woldmeer recreational lake, around which a neighbourhood with 5,000 new homes will be built in the coming decades. 

The area is seen as a growing and vivid city district. As the studio explained, based on the growing community, it was important for the neighbourhood to create an inviting community centre, which will serve as a place for residents to shop, gather, and eat. 

In the end, the studio built an eye-catching market hall that embodies this central function, while embracing sustainability and quality of life as central design values.

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Modern Market Hall

The design of SuperHub reinterprets "a revitalized circular version of a market hall design" compared to traditional market hall typologies.

Conceived as an expansive and transparent space, its supporting elements become key features of the project. It looks like a distinctive wooden skin. The structure is made entirely of cross-shaped laminated wooden columns and beams, providing the building with a cathedral-like appearance. 

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Thanks to these wooden columns and beams, the hall has a large span and 9-metre ceiling height, creating an exceptionally luminous space and offering a flexible layout and usage adaptations in the future. 

"The large canopy, which extends out more than five metres, provides sun protection and draws the structure into its green surroundings with the use of elegant columns and net-like wooden trusses," said De Zwarte Hond. 

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

"Additionally, cleverly designed cross forms provide the building with stability, ensuring that no additional wind bracing infrastructure is required." 

"The choice of wooden construction also ensures a positive climate impact," the studio added.

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Ecological and Sustainable

According to the studio, SuperHub acts as a modern symbiosis of a marketplace and shopping centre, where visitors can do their shopping and visit a trendy café. 

Due to its large and flexible configuration, the structure was built to last and it offers the possibility for future adjustments or additions. 

"The flexible, open layout allows for its functions to be reinvented along with the changing needs of the community, meaning that it will not become outdated or be demolished in the future," added the studio. 

"The building could, for example, accommodate a community centre, a museum, or even homes in 20 years’ time. In this way, SuperHub manifests itself as a future-proof community hub that will grow along with the development of Meerstad."

Image © Ronald Zijlstra, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

The studio installed solar panels on the roof of the SuperHub, while reserved the roof for plants for bees and insects. In terms of energy efficiency, the indoor climate is provided by the built-in air treatment installation and heat and cold ground storage. 

Furthermore, the whole structure of market hall is also designed to absorb and resists against the vibrations of Groningen earthquakes. The SuperHub’s flexible design allows it to fulfill a wide array of functions and activities, such as community gatherings.

Image © Ronald Zijlstra, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Varied and Multifunctional

SuperHub offers the Meerstad neighbourhood an opportunity for varied functionality, and currently includes a supermarket and a café. In addition to its function as a source of food provision, the open and spacious building functions as a meeting place for residents. 

"Our aim was to make the shopping experience personal and social once again, and to offer residents a refreshing alternative to increasingly popular express delivery services," said the studio. 

"The impressive spatial qualities of the structure are essential here in fulfilling its purpose as an attractive and multifunctional community centre." 

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

Accordingly, the supermarket becomes a place for the purchase of everyday groceries, but also a way to meet each other, thereby contributing to the social sustainability of the Meerstad neighbourhood.

Image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond

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De Zwarte Hond is a design agency for architecture, urban design, and strategy, with offices in Groningen, Rotterdam, and Cologne. 

Through a combination of social commitment and craftsmanship, the firm creates high-quality projects that are sensitive to their context, the needs of users, and the vision of the clients.

Project facts

Project name: SuperHub Meerstad

Architects: De Zwarte Hond

Location: Groningen, the Netherlands.

Collaborators: MWPO, Brands Bouw B.V., Maripaan Groep, Jumbo Supermarkten, Bureau Meerstad, Pieters Bouwtechniek, DGMR.

Top image © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond. 

All images © Ronald Tilleman, courtesy of De Zwarte Hond unless otherwise stated.

All drawings © De Zwarte Hond.

> via De Zwarte Hond

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