5/05/2011

VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo by Abel Castillo

Abel Castillo's architect thesis VillaCon Eco-Market is located in one of the largest whole sale trade of Santo Domingo where both merchants and consumers go there in large numbers of people.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo © Abel Castillo

The Building
Abel Castillo, a student of architecture at the UNPHU University (or Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña), explores the semiotics of Villacon market environments. He noted that this market is made out of a combination of colors, patches, and "spontaneous and chaotic" organizations.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo-Domingo © Abel Castillo

These organizations are the basis of his project that consists of an vertical articulation of programs. The diagram below shows the stack of layers.
Disassembly Diagram © Abel Castillo

Color mixtures and natural distributions were chosen which leads to chaotic and random space distributions. The integration of physical and cultural patterns allows the user to adapt more easily to the organization of the building.
Diagram © Abel Castillo

Abel Castillo says to have chosen a solution which aims at maintaining the natural and economic resources.  The project envisions to reinstate a market which construction stopped in 2002. For this reason the goal is to maximize the great commercial cluster that lacks economic resources for its proper maintenance, the architect says.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo © Abel Castillo

The building is divided into 3 main areas. The ground floor and the underground are occupied by the market. Sellers are allowed to shape their spaces according to the needs of their business. The second and third levels are serve as parking lots while the fourth level is used as a planting area.
Diagram © Abel Castillo

The façade is made up of 275,145 pixels that can be rented for a price of US$ 1.00 per month per pixel. The choice of a building with four visible sides that manages to rent this spaces for a small cost can be explained with the building envelope. It is conceived to emulate the identity of advertising-saturated buildings that surround the building.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo © Abel Castillo

The building is capable to respond to its user's specific needs both visually and functionally. Thus the modular public space are located in several spots in order the citizen to configure it spontaneously.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo © Abel Castillo

Another interesting aspect of this project is the fact that each engine advertising column that rotates is driven by the biomass plant which function is to absorb and transform the daily waste produced in the market and in the planting area. This biomass will recycle plant to provide power to the rotating pixels. The maintenance of the planting area will consist of a system to capture rainwater using the angle of the building to the rapid mobilization of it for reuse in watering plants.
VillaCon Eco-Market in Santo Domingo © Abel Castillo

Source: eVolo

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