Noelle Osborne, B.Arch 26’
Patrick Martin Traveling Fellowship 2024 Summer 2024
As a kid I was captivated by food, I enjoyed eating it, baking it, cooking it, understanding how things were grown, and how it could provide insight into a culture, a community, and ultimately an individual. I spent hours watching Food Network and Anthony Bourdain travel the world. Watching these shows and learning new recipes always made me feel as if I was there in a new place connecting with a diverse array of people. Through my combined fascination with food I began to question the impact that architecture and design held on food.
I began to question, how does architecture influence the surrounding contexts being: sidewalks, parks, and design of these food markets? How does architecture respond to food tourism? How do people interact between food and architecture? How are food markets and food stalls designed?
As these questions began to arise I began to wonder where the best places would be to study this juxtaposition of architecture and food. In my research the places that continuously came up were Spain and Italy, and so my trip began thanks to the Patrick Martin Traveling Fellowship.
My trip began in Barcelona, a city that has responded to the historic architecture created and has adapted culturally and socially to its urban development. I started my trip in the Gothic Quarter area going to one of the oldest food markets in the world, La Boqueria, plazas such as Placa Riel, and Mercat de Santa Caterina. In understanding places such as La Boqueria and Placa Riel you have to first understand the Gothic Quarter. The Gothic Quarter felt as if it was the Times Square of Barcelona. A tourist designed area that uses its architecture and urban planning to serve the tourist. As a tourist destination, I was able to see the influence of food tourism and its effect on the local consumer. The way in which people traveled through these spaces and experienced these places were all due to the architecture. La Boqueria is an open air market that is tucked into a plaza, the face of La Boqueria is unassuming as you can miss it if you don’t look up. However, when you go inside La Boqueria it opens up into a large market with individual stalls. Each stall is permanent but each day the stalls slightly change depending on their food selection. The variation in food makes you see the architecture differently but in fact it is the same.
In addition to La Boqueria another market that captivated the area of Santa Caterina was Mercat de Santa Caterina. Mercat de Santa Caterina was located in an area that was a more local area. However, the architecture of the market spoke volumes, an indoor market with open air access all enclosed with a vibrant curved roof line, lined with multicolored ceramics on wood. A magnificent site that captures your attention that is then meant with local food and vendors. Mercat de Santa Caterina also had permanent stalls that felt like mini grocery stands.
Continuing through Spain I traveled to Madrid. As the capital of Spain I began to see even more culture and history ingrained into each street. Each street told a different story and each story was surrounded by food. Madrid was such a culturally diverse city that felt like an accumulation of a range of people and ideas. Visiting sites such as Plaza Mayor, Mercado San Miguel, and Mercado San Anton. When traveling to Plaza Mayor you could see the history of Plaza Mayor still active today. Plaza Mayor was originally used as a provisions market throughout the week and an event space for royal activities on the weekends. As I traveled through Plaza Mayor I was able to see the impact of the architecture and the surrounding space in order to continue its historical influence. As you walk through Plaza Mayor you are moved through large arcs that are then presented into a perfect square plaza that is created by four connecting buildings. From the outside you wouldn’t expect to be greeted by a plaza and topographically the plaza looks like a hole in the city. The architecture changes how the space is used, as you approach the space the atmosphere changes, the markets fill the sides and the food and restaurant stalls change the environment. Moving through the surrounding area of the plaza you are approached by the Mercado San Miguel. Mercado San Miguel is a tapas market serving various cheese, meats, and seafood. Mercado San Miguel is one of the oldest iron structured markets in Madrid. Its ornate ironwork and glass walls creates a space that invites the outside in and encourages interaction between the in between space and the architecture.
The last stop of my trip was Venice, Italy. Venice is such a spectacular place: the layout of the city, the history, and of course the food truly changes the way one experiences it. In Venice it felt as if each street led out into a plaza that then connected to a larger plaza. Ultimately creating these relief spaces lined with food and vendor stalls. Additionally, due to Venice being an island the water informed the street layouts. Spaces such the Rialto Bridge served as both a means of circulation as well as a place for people to explore, shop, and eat. Every corner and canal of Venice was being used by vendors and pop-up markets.
As my travels continued from each city I began to recognize these markets as the “hats” or “tops” of their respective cities. They began to become landing points of the city and ultimate center points for both the locals and tourists. Each market, each plaza, and each sidewalk served a purpose for the city and the commonality between them all was its influence from food and vendors. The architecture changed how you ate, how you traveled from one area to the next, and overall an amazing experience and opportunity to see the influence design has on food.
