Rethinking Jaipur's Markets

This is a travel studio in Jaipur, India for 2019 Fall. Before going to India, I was very interested in the markets. I found a very interesting film, invented by Sowmya Raja and Niranjan Kuppan, that talking about Indian Bazaar: Street Markets and Customer Perceptions. I abstracted some main ideas based on the information from the interviews in the film, that were street markets are in line with Indian people’s shopping habbit, they are cheaper, more convenient, more casual than modern stores, people can get all the items they want in each of the shop. But there are problems, too, crowded, lack permanent building structures, lack some necessary facilities. so I arrived India with these ideas, tried to understand, document, analysis and place, and check if it’s true that these things are happening.

So when I came back from India, I made the analysis to look at how the markets are: there are street vendors, push cars in the middle of the streets, these kind of narrow but plentiful markets are all over the place. Because of these conclusions, I decided that what I want to do is a market will have proto. Based on India mainly rely on agriculture, it maybe a food market in that point, but I would like also include some crafts to be a mixed market, because I found the Indian National Airways Market in Delhi, it’s interesting how everything can mix, so a person can go to buy everything, like the people in the interview.

The model I create is a series of very simple module, it can be prefabricated. What I try to do with the model, is trying to make different possibilities of openings, depending on what they are selling, and depending on merchants’ various demands. It can be different during different time of the market, activities are created around: one create more shadows while another one may have more openings, to provide more surfaces to expose things. The material is light weight concrete and it uses steel for the structure, all of the modules can be packed in very easy way and transported to the market.

Because the module is adaptable, the system can be occupied in a plaza, a street or a corner, etc. I analyze two main situations, one is more extensive, in the corner, another one is more linear, be in the street. They are all located in typical market areas in Jaipur, the Walled City and Jaipur Metro Station.

In both of the situations, I apply some of my common conclusions: First, Public space I create in the markets is the most important one, because it’s a gathering place, can make a breath of these very dense markets. There are some good points to put some water infrastructures, shadow, seats, it becomes a market more than a market, it’s also a public space. Second, Markets produce a lot of waste, so I decided to put the garbage station in the corner, with in tension that in less than 10 meters everybody has a waste infrastructure. Third, about mobility. During business hours, no cars inside, that’s something I learned from the market in Delhi, it could be a inside world, we can be free, seeing everything without care of the traffic.

So the atmosphere of the market I want to create is sewing everything to the project, providing “various and plentiful”, that is providing services to all kinds of users, all at one place.

Rethinking Jaipur's Markets by Wenyan Yu in India won the WA Award Cycle 33. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.