- Site-specific cases
Once the drop fell down in Jinfang, a typical shrinking southern Chinese village, bringing the new hope. The self-organized O market is not simply a new market: it is the first voice of the new era, where less is more.
Zen circle of the O market is also a metaphor for a number zero, which communicates ethical values such as zero waste, zero destruction and zero conflict. To ensure conscious attitude to nature, market ranks environmental footprint sellers have during their production and thus the more responsible residents get the better spot. All the inner processes, recycling and treatment are designed to benefit the neighbouring environment. The model is to be spread on other rural areas, and with e-commerce inversing the conventional goods flow. O market in a sense becomes a protagonist of the new economic model and the new environmental concept.
Consumption revolution starts in village. Welcome the economics of zen.
The Jinfang village revival was imagined through one family's experience.
Bamboo bends in our hands,
Umbrella gives us shade.
The taste of mother's jam in a new market
Calls you to come back home.
Just one drop in the Jinfang calm waters,
One drop to make a wish.
Land of hot springs and sweet orchards,
Come to Jinfang!
The taste of mother's jam
Known by the world.
Just one drop in the Jinfang calm waters,
One drop to make a wish
come true.
Located on the joint of residential, farmland and forest, the O Market is a boost on the overall area with new orchards and gardens planting, landscaping and connection with village cultural objects.
The bamboo structure is to be crafted together in the improvisation manner by using local knowledge: architecture carries love of its future users.
O market is about bringing consciousness, inventiveness, joy and collaboration in the Jinfang environment, catalyzing the proactive rural life.
The circular pond, a void in the middle of the space, spins the rest of the market around itself. It stores and purifies the rainwater, it is a space of pause - and beginning.
Concentric alleys with umbrellas are shared shades for sellers and buyers. Like guardians, they provide market residents with water, electricity and storage space, expanding and shrinking according to their needs. Surrounding orchards, collectively planted by residents, bring them new wealth.
In construction, we do not take more than offered by nature, mainly relying on local bamboo and tree plantations. For the reinforcement we use already produced steel elements from
nearby factory so that carbon footprint remains close to zero.
In operation, comfortable microclimate and electricity demands are supported passively by special roof configuration. Central pool passively purifies water, and composting provides nutrients, so other waste is also minimized.
Just as construction, the operation aims for zero impact.
The floor plates are raised up to let the earth beneath breathe. Alley roads are paved with geo meshes and small fraction gravel, so the landscape remains naturally permeable. Organic waste is turned into composting material. The central pond stores and purifies water. The whole market functioning designed to be beneficial to the neighbouring farmland ecosystem.
