Exchange Hall
The 2050 Exchange Hall will be at once returning to an archaic form of trade via barter and therefore seeing a return to the market as a central place for public meeting and organisation at the heart of the community. Whilst also being aware of the language of shopping up to the present. Therefore a combination of function in a new language to accommodate this is required.
Part of this is the relationship between the market area and more office areas for private meetings. This pulling apart of the offices materially and aesthetically can articulate the openess of a new society, enabling a sense of public ownership.
“Shopping has been allowed to flatten the surrounding space and individuals within it.” – Chuihua Judy Chung, “Ms. Consumer” In a post-capitalist environment this flattening has a chance to be reversed.
The market of 2011 still held remnants of the sense of public space with strong social capital but still doesn’t encompass the breadth of community life. By utilising the concept of sinks (places people are drawn to and stay in) and arcades (the path to the sinks). This project seeks to attain public inclusivity by enabling both community run bartering spaces and individual opportunist spaces. Designed for flexibility and to grow with numbers.
