FOOD MARKET IN BOSTON

Abstract

The thesis takes on a competition brief by ACSA, sponsored by the wood products council. The challenge is to design a Food Market in Downtown Boston, using wood as the primary material. The site is given as the parcels formed by displacing the Central Artery highway underground – in a major civil engineering project termed “The Big Dig”. Entrants are allowed to select any parcel along the linear stretch, and respond to the surrounding context.

The conceptual parti is predominantly site driven, mapping on issues from the urban context. The memory of the highway is respected symbolically, as it used to cut off, and in a way prevented developmental pressures experienced in the government and financial center from reaching the historic North End district. On the other hand, the food program and parkscape are employed to stitch the severed district, particularly the historically important Blackstone block, back into the North End.

Issues pertaining to food production are also investigated, comparing between factory farming and sustainable farming practices. Organic farming is advocated, being more environmental friendly, healthy and sustainable. Hence, the food program is interwoven with extensive use of landscape. Ideas of a sustainable farming landscape are abstracted into the architecture, which is expressed and threaded by the use of wood. Eventually, the layers of intentions are amalgamated into the food market, which acts as an urban instrument to help reconcile differences in the site.