Industrial Recreation

Studio / Fall 2019 / Year 5 / Rice Architecture Paris / Professors Nicholas Gilliland + John Casbarian

All work completed in partnership with Hannah Wang.

Wholesale Distribution Center / Recreation Center
  • Wholesale markets (produce, fish, poultry), warehouses, produce ripening facility, plant nursery, truck loading, logistics center
  • Sports courts, gymnasium, track, boxing ring, spectator seating, concessions, locker rooms, sauna, ice baths, boardwalk, pavilions, park

In a turn since the Industrial Revolution, places of industry are being pushed out of the very cities they once spawned. France’s wholesale distribution centers, marchés d’intérêt national (MIN), have withdrawn from city centers. The 37-acre Bordeaux MIN is now the only remaining MIN in France within a central urban location. Industrial Recreation contends that industrial infrastructures have a role to play within cities by re-thinking the public accessibility of logistical architecture, re-conceptualizing spaces of industry as urban amenities. The MIN’s market halls are conjugated with a recreation center as an example of public dual-use of an industrial site integrated with the urban fabric. Simultaneously functioning as a porous social space as well as a secure logistical node, Industrial Recreation offers a hybridization between logistical space and the urban amenities and mobility of the public.

2020 Margaret Everson-Fossi Fellowship, Rice Architecture
2019 Excellence in Architecture Student Design Merit Award, AIA Fort Worth
© Lara Hansmann 2020