This 4782sqft fish market is situated in Pulau Sebang, a sleepy town near the border between Malacca-Negeri Sembilan. We were approached by the client, a young businessman who was looking to upgrade his family business that has been around since 1959 as the first and leading fresh and frozen seafood wholesaler in town.
The site is currently a 10-minute walk from a town’s 2-storey market building built by the local council, and is occupied by a fish market covered by a lightweight steel roof. The client wishes to develop a building to house a fresh market complete with refrigeration units and cold rooms, to provide a pleasant street-level shopping experience of buying fresh local produce.
The wet market houses three sections with distinctive colours; seafood, fruits & vegetables and a check-out section in blue, green and orange respectively.
Due to the site’s location that is sandwiched between taller buildings around it, the site only receives direct sunlight during the afternoon. The walls surrounding the retail area are cladded with translucent roof panels to provide filtered natural lighting while corrugated zinc roof panels of the same profile cover the remaining cold rooms and roof areas to keep the interior from getting hot during the afternoon.
Upon exiting the indoor retail area, shoppers can enjoy drinks from a juice bar and snacks for foodcarts at the covered alfresco area that is interspersed with greenery to soften the stark existing hardscape of the street.