This project marries culinary design with social interaction featuring sleek materials backed by parametric architecture, a design experiment that blends functionality with luxury, while providing tranquility and beauty in equal measure.
The architect Diana Nitreanu has wrapped a food market in Bucharest, with an aesthetic informed by organic shapes with the ai to reinvent the food market, while bringing stunning ideas to bring farming into the city, promoting sustainable buying and responsible consumerism. The architect together with the client were committed to delivering one-of-a-kind designs for restaurant brands to stand out from the crowd and do something different, redefining what grocery can be – one experience at a time.
Various typologies of food vendors are arranged in the open atrium on the ground floor, some of which are designed to be retractable, allowing flexibility for different types of merchants as well as a large open event space to be formed at the center. This new typology brings together the local with more curated food offerings in a contemporary yet humble and sustainable way. Smaller snack shops were positioned on the ground floor and the outdoors, while larger restaurants occupy the upper floor.
Each stall was assembled from a kit of parts, so that the vendors are able to create their own signage and layout, while maintaining a consistent material and lighting palette. An area described as a “stage” is located by the staircase with a series of undulating balconies wrapped around the atrium on the upper floor. The interior of the market was designed to resemble a cathedral, with shops and cafe’s arranged around a central, double-height atrium.
The entrance to the two-story market was framed by a double-height arrangement of Calacatta gold marble slabs, with a Corten steel canopy added to provide shelter. The facades are described by a mix of natural wood veneering blended with dark grey metallic spines that undulate as waves creating a dynamic optical illusion.
