The design by Roarc Renew for the Mengxi Food Market of Julu Foods Group, given the limited budget, focuses on innovating the façade. Each design element follows the principle that communities should build food markets in open public spaces rather than supermarkets, which lack the urban-social characteristics of public space
Mengxi Food Market by Julu Foods Group. A market as a warm space for the citizens of Shanghai
The renovation of the Mengxi Food Market by Julu Foods Group is driven by an architectural way of thinking: it materializes the relationship between the market and its neighborhood
According to the designers of the Mengxi Food Market, "public spaces are activity areas connected to a community, and in a city, a 'gray space'... Designing public spaces for citizens should aim to create a 'comfortable and pleasant place to work and live' for the residents." Therefore, for the market project, the commercial attributes are retained, but the façade becomes a space that actively interacts with passing citizens and acts as a public space
The Mengxi Food Market has a façade that stretches for almost 50 meters, with a staircase leading up to the market level. Based on these unique physical structures, Roarc Renew transformed the handrail into regular curving waves, blurring the boundary between the market and the street. Observing the habits of the customers, they noticed that some elderly people used to stop at pedestrian walkways to play chess: the small empty spaces created by the wild bamboo fences were specifically designed for them and for those who need a little rest
Shanghai's food markets should have elements typical of Shanghai: plane trees intertwining with Art Deco villas on the street edges, and age-old bamboo fences, forming the city's characteristic alleys. For the renovation of the Mengxi Food Market, wild bamboo was chosen as the main material, alluding to the rural and wild theme and the style of the "old Shanghai."
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