Sunday 18 January 2015

Interesting Market Renewal In Europe

This is Mercat del'encants in Barcelona. It is one of Europe's biggest flea markets and despite the grand appearance in this photo, it sells everything from rusty nails to antiques.


Mercat del'encants has just undergone a major renewal and, typically of Barcelona markets, the architecture is quite stunning. The market has been transformed from an umbrella covered jumble of stalls shown on the left to the more orderly environment on the right. Some of the stalls show their wares the old-fashioned way - laid out ad-hoc on the ground while others have embraced more modern methods.



The new market has added a variety of shop/stall alternatives which we will look at more closely in the next article.

Have Your Say - click here.

COMMENTS:
19/01/2015 11:59:32 Barcelona renewal "To my eye the stall seem very smalls & a bit of a jumble.   Goods on the ground, not a good idea from a visual & a health &  safety point of view.the market does not seem to have a fluid flow. "

It is interesting that the designers have not attempted to sanitise the market too much. It does have elements of a jumble. And some of the stalls, particularly those with roller doors, do look small. The main trading floor does have larger stalls and the significant point would seem to be that there is a variety of options for traders. We have traders at QVM who would be perfectly suited to the smaller footprint and some who would embrace the in between walk-in stalls which are probably similar in size to the Therry St. market. Others would need the larger stalls for their display. - Ed