「マーケットキューブは、さまざまな体験を集約する凝縮器のようなものです」MVRDVの共同設立者であるヴィニー・マースは語ります。「この建物には、わずかな数の異なる階層と機能しかありませんが、それらが連携して機能することで、非常に多くの組み合わせを生み出すことができます。子どもと一緒にフードコートで昼食をとり、その後子どもを託児所に預けて果物や野菜の買い物をする親の姿を想像してみてください。あるいは、市場でおいしいものを見て回る前に、展示に惹かれて足を踏み入れる若い都市生活者を想像してみてください。あるいは、屋上の農業展示と、その下の階での公演を見学するために訪れる学校の団体を想像してみてください。さまざまな組み合わせがこの建物の魅力を高め、その結果、建物は常に賑わうことになります」

そのシンプルさと柔軟性のおかげで、この建物は今後数十年の予測不可能な変化にも容易に適応し、その寿命を延ばすとともに、可能な限り長く高コストで持続不可能な構造変更を避けることができます。外部の動線要素によって、各階の平面プランは完全に自由に設計できるようになっており、ほとんどの階の階高は5メートルあり、市場や展示スペースの階は最大で8メートルあります。この高い天井により、ほぼあらゆる用途への転用が可能になります。市場とフードコートの階には、シンプルな伝統的屋台から座席付きのキオスクまで、多様な出店形態に対応できるよう、屋台の設計パターンが考えられました。

さまざまな方法で、この建物は周囲に向かって開かれ、通行人を引き込むように設計されています。隣接する道路の上に架かる歩道橋は、頭前渓リバーサイドパークから2階のフードコートへ直接アクセスを可能にし、地上階と地階の市場フロアは、市場の活動を通りへと広げる選択肢を提供しています。それは新竹へと続く高架橋が生み出す日陰の中で行われます。これらのつながりを強く確立するために、市場フロアの床仕上げは建物の外の舗装と同じものにされ、公共空間の延長として市場の建物を捉えるという考えを強調します。

来訪者が建物内の異なる階層や機能、開館時間の複雑さを把握しやすくするために、照明と案内表示は設計における重要な要素となっていました。各階は異なる色で照らされ、それぞれの機能が示されています。また、LEDスクリーン、ネオンライト、公共アートが館内の至る所に配置され、来館者は現在地と次にどこへ行きたいのかを把握することができます。最後に、エスカレーターは半透明のパネルで覆われており、中を移動する人々を映し出します。そのため、初めて訪れた人々も、すべての階を探索してみようという気になるでしょう。次の階では何が待っているか、誰にもわからないのです。

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以下、リリーステキストです。

Future-facing, vertical flexibility: MVRDV’s “Market Cube” in Zhubei anticipates the next step in the evolution of the market building

MVRDV has won a competition to design a new building in Zhubei, Taiwan that combines a market and food hall with cultural spaces. Standing out next to the Touqian River, the project’s mix of uses will make the new market building a destination within the city. With its stack of open, flexible floors that can adapt to changing demands, the building acts as an urban condenser, and is envisaged as the next step in the evolution of the market. This future-focused vision is reflected in its name: the market square becomes the Market Cube.

Zhubei, in the north of Taiwan, is one of the island’s fastest-growing cities. Driven largely by its proximity to the Silicon Valley-like Hsinchu Science Park the city attracts masses of young professionals, mostly young families. Spearheaded by the city’s mayor Zheng Chaofang, Zhubei City Office imagined a market building that could provide both an amenity and a popular destination for the city’s increasingly affluent population. The project was planned for a prominent location alongside the Touqian river, at the point where a major bridge connects Zhubei to Hsinchu, making it a significant landmark in the city.

Responding to this challenge, MVRDV and co-architect EKUO studied the history of market typologies, from roadside vegetable trucks and market squares to the supermarkets and food courts of today. This research revealed a tension between the increasing efficiency and convenience offered by modern typologies and the multi-functional social qualities that characterised Taiwanese street markets in the past – with recent developments attempting through various means to refer back to those older experiences.

The Market Cube – also known locally as River Bank 1 – takes a new approach within this trend, providing a platform for a traditional market and combining it with gastronomy as well as social and leisure functions by creating frictionless, highly visible routes between the different levels – an ideal mixture of convenience and experience. A stack of open-plan floors hosts markets, food courts, day-care and children’s playgrounds, exhibition and performance spaces, and a rooftop with an agricultural showcase and pavilions for activities. The building’s wide exterior terraces are accessed by two sets of escalators that snake their way up the building’s exterior, allowing each level to be opened or closed independently. This allows the different functions to synergise during the day without tying them all to the same opening schedule, allowing the building to stay busy long into the night.

“The Market Cube is like a condenser for different experiences”, says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “It has just a handful of different levels and different functions, but thanks to the way they work together you can create a huge number of combinations. Imagine a parent who gets lunch with their child at the food court before dropping them at the day-care to shop for fruit and vegetables. Or a young urbanite who is drawn in by an exhibition before checking out the treats at the market. Or a school group making a trip to see the agricultural showcase on the roof and a performance in the space below. The different combinations multiply the attractiveness of the building so that it will be busy at all times.”

Thanks to its simplicity and flexibility, the building will easily adapt to the unpredictable changes of the coming decades, extending its lifespan and avoiding costly and unsustainable alterations to the structure for as long as possible. The external circulation elements allow the floorplans to be entirely free, while floor-to-floor heights for most levels are five metres, or a full eight metres for the market and exhibition floors. These high ceilings allow for almost any alternative use imaginable. For the market and food court levels, a catalogue of stalls was designed, from simple traditional stalls to kiosks with built-in seating, allowing for a wide variety of vendor types.

In a number of ways, the building is designed to reach out into its surroundings to draw in passers-by. A pedestrian bridge over the adjacent road provides access from the Touqian Riverside Park directly into the food court on the first floor, while the market levels on the ground and lower ground floor provide the option to extend the market activities into the street, in the shade created by the overpass that leads to Hsinchu. To strongly establish these connections, the floor covering of these market levels will match the paving outside the building, reinforcing the idea of the market building as a continuation of the public space.

To help visitors navigate the complexities of the building’s different floors, functions, and opening times, lighting and wayfinding was a crucial element of the design. Each level is lit with a different colour to communicate the differing functions, while LED screens, neon lights, and public artworks are placed throughout the building to help visitors understand both where they are and where they want to go next. Finally, the escalators are clad in translucent panels, showcasing the people moving around inside and therefore encouraging first-time visitors to explore all the levels… who knows what they might find on the next floor?

■建築概要

Project Name: Market Cube (also known as River Bank 1)
Location: Zhubei, Taiwan
Year: 2024–ongoing
Client: Hsinchu County Zhubei City Office
Size and Programme: 18,962 m² Mixed-use (Market, foodcourt, daycare, parents & children centre, exhibition & performance space)
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Credits
Architect: MVRDV
Founding Partner in charge: Winy Maas
Director: Gideon Maasland
Design Team: Hui Hsin Liao, Herman Gaarman, Mark van Wasbeek, Chi Yi Liao, Francesca Cambi, Olly Veugelers, Karolina Duda, Xiaohu Yan, Jesús Planes Tenza, Bartosz Tenenberg
Visualisations: Antonio Luca Coco, Angelo La Delfa, Luana La Martina, Priscilla Antinori, Ciprian Buzdugan
Copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
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Partners
Co-architect: EKUO Architects
Structural engineer: Envision (EEC)
MEP: Kaiju Engineering Consultants
Geotech-engineering: Kaitai Measuring Instrument
Traffic Engineering: JOR Traffic Consultant
Fire Consultant: GrandMaxx
Green Building: Sangyuan Green Building Consultant
Intelligent Building: DF Technologies INC.