Los Angeles | 2023 | UCLA

Farmers Market

This proposal for a market and community hall features a bold, sculptural design that draws on the architectural vernacular of Hollywood, integrating elements like gable forms and open interiors. Utilizing unconventional timber composites and folded surfaces, the building creates dynamic spaces and a central market void, while engaging with the urban context through its varied massing and concealed apertures.

In a departure from traditional timber construction, the building utilizes timber composites and a surface-active structure instead of the typical post-and-beam system. This unconventional use of timber is expressed through the folding of surfaces, allowing all structural loads to move through composite sheets. Instead of relying on timber’s linear form, the building employs composite CLT sheets to create a folded plate timber roof, supported by similarly composite CLT walls. The resulting sculptural form creates a dynamic relationship with the ground, taking on different characteristics along each street edge and defining a large market space as a void at its core. The front of the building, which is two stories tall, is sliced open to connect the street directly to the market hall, while the rear of the building appears as a one-story volume elevated one floor above ground level to accommodate loading, storage, and circulation.

This proposal for a market and community hall boldly embraces its identity as an object building. From both the north and south perspectives, the project presents a striking figural silhouette. However, rather than disregarding the surrounding scale and urban fabric of Hollywood, the design thoughtfully incorporates elements from its context, often influenced by timber construction. The building draws inspiration from Hollywood’s craftsman bungalows with their iconic gable forms, the open, column-free interiors of bowstring truss light industrial buildings, and the understated expression of stucco-clad industrial and creative-use commercial structures. These references are woven into the design to create a dialogue with the surrounding architectural vernacular.

The market is strategically positioned both beneath the building mass and as a void within it. The building’s various masses are arranged obliquely to preserve the figural void of the market hall and block direct views from the outside, enveloping the hall and wrapping it with community center functions. A folded strategy is also applied to the building’s apertures, maintaining the abstraction of the overall massing. Windows are concealed from orthogonal views and are only revealed while walking along the building’s elevations, preserving the building’s sculptural quality. The roof massing on the west side is designed as an occupiable volume, connecting the first and second floors and extending from south to north. This spatial organization creates a variety of room proportions, some narrow with gabled tops and others featuring oblique spaces that span multiple floors. In the assembly hall, four serial gables create a rhythmic ceiling, contributing to the dynamic and varied spatial experience throughout the building.