The competition brief asked for two architectural solutions – a permanent roof for an existing outdoor marketplace and a light removable roof for an existing street, to shelter a temporary street market.

Due to the marketplace’s poor state of maintenance, our proposal was divided into two phases of works: a first phase that aimed at to fulfil the competition brief and a second phase that intended to refurbish and update the building’s exterior.

The competition proposal is the result of a desire to design two light and immaterial roofs that are the antithesis of the pre-existent marketplace and street.

The new permanent roof of the marketplace was designed as a crown for the existing structure, filtering sunlight and creating an atmosphere sheltered from the harshness of the Atlantic weather. Transversal openings allowed the existing metrosideros trees to keep expanding vertically in symbiosis with the new structure.

The new light removable roof was designed as a translucid object that adjusts to the dimension of the street. It reveals its constructive subtleness by gently touching the pavement and allowing sunlight into the street while also protecting it. It is an antechamber to the Marketplace.

Just like vernacular architecture in Azores, our proposal is about the relationship between light and heavy, nature and construction, the sky and the earth.