Resilient Aesthetics
with Viktoria KeldererWhen we think of a market, it is made up primarily by its temporarily appearing actors, its strolling customers and vivid goods. The image we have in mind, however, is less determined by the actual, persistent structure of the place. This idea of an in- and exhaling scene, a two-faced location, has substantially influenced the thinking of a potential market hall for the old northern cemetery in Munich.
Covered markets are places of great sensual stimulation: vital colors, fresh produce, intensive flavours and odours, busy noises. The tangible presence of a market structure literally serves as a stage for these manifold sensations. What happens inside resembles a spontaneous theatrical play of the everyday life. It is for this reason that we not only attend markets to purchase everyday goods, but to participate in this public play. We enter a dialogue with others, stand in the background and observe the events or merely enjoy the solitude of being in a crowd.
This project investigates a market hall on the western side of the „Old Northern Cemetery“, whose sorrounding walls were heavily perforated during the second world war and afterwards ingeniously repaired by Hans Döllgast. The market hall provides a new hotspot of public life where already today people meet to rest, play and enjoy the open square on the backside of the ex-cemetery. The structure not only works as a market but also as a transitory building that connects the cityscape with the enclosed and calm park of the cemetery with its grand old trees.