Public markets are more than just spaces for buying and selling.

BS Architecture students are staging their designs of local public markets through an exhibit at the ground floor of the Student Center Building starting today, Dec. 13, until Dec. 15.

Although titled Mercato, the Italian word for marketplace, the exhibit proves to be a locally grounded take on innovating public markets’ spaces. The students’ designs rethink the public markets of the municipalities of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Abra by infusing them with inspiration from the towns’ histories, cultures, and flora.

In this way, the proposed built environments construct meanings grounded on local ways of knowing, doing, and being, while imagining spaces that ensure sustainability and users’ well-being.

Several of the designs displayed are those that mimic ripe banana, salt blocks, sea urchins, nipa hut, rice paddies, springs and mountains, the usukan (tunnel) of Abra, small sailing boat, garlic, coral reefs, among others.

Present during the ribbon-cutting of the exhibit were Dr. Rolando B. Navarro (VP for Academic Affairs), Mr. Albert Tejero (VP for Finance and Administration), Dr. Mario P. Obrero (Faculty Regent), Mr. Jhunel Tanurio (Student Regent), and the College of Architecture faculty.