Introduction and Interview Gabrielle de la Cruz
Images LT Pagaduan Studio
“In January 2020, the Municipality of San Francisco Agusan del Sur commissioned a Master Plan for the comprehensive development of a five-hectare Public Market and Terminal Complex,” recalls LT Pagaduan Studio in designing their WAF 2024 shortlisted entry. “The current facilities can no longer meet the current demands and future growth of the municipality. The primary objective is to develop a new complex that can cater to the community’s needs for the next 30 years, ignite commerce, and be the new benchmark model in designing local markets and transport centers.”
The architects shared that San Francisco is “the center of trade and commerce” in the province, so they wanted to create a complex that the community would appreciate. “We examined how the community used the old market and transport terminal. We ensured that there would be more space for items and for people to move around, all while designing structures that open up to natural views, reduce cost and CO2 emissions, and encourage interactions within the community.”
New Public Market and Terminal by LT Pagaduan Studio
Project description edited for brevity
The Intermodal Terminal building is a modern structure made of pre-engineered steel. Similar to airports and metro stations, this promises to have contemporary interiors with departure gates and waiting lounges, an arrival hall, ticketing counters, more bus bays, schedule display and public address system, a surveillance mechanism, commercial zones, and expanded passenger facilities. Thoughtful integration of large glass walls enhances transparency and openness to the outdoors, serving departure guests with majestic views of Mt. Diwata and the surrounding green fields. The use of prefabricated building components, large overhead fans, rainwater collection systems, and photovoltaic panels maximizes cost-saving benefits and reduces CO2 emissions.
Outside the main terminal building are separate small terminals for varied public utility vehicles such as tricycles, jeepneys, and vans to ensure efficient inter and intra-municipality transport.
The Dry and Wet Market buildings are similar light steel structures clad with colorful panels, designed to mimic the Filipino “bayong” – a traditional handmade market basket of locals made from weaving Buri leaves. The resulting architectural assembly is a product of natural ventilation and lighting, expelling hot air above through louvers on high ceilings while bringing in fresh air below through wide wall openings. Using innovative merchandising strategies, market display counters were made of stainless steel which will improve the cleanliness, quality, and presentation of market goods and produce.
The Food and Retail Center building is a 60-meter wide space-frame pavilion housing 100 retail stores and 48 food stalls showcasing local products. This follows the municipality’s mission to provide local entrepreneurs with low-cost entry into retailing. All stalls and stores are modular by design to ensure replicability and speedy construction. The biophilic roof structure was inspired by the local miracle tree – moringa, characterized by a single trunk but with multiple branches and a magnificent umbrella-shaped crown for shade.
The Material Recovery Facility and Sewage Treatment Plant buildings will ensure all solid and water wastes will be recovered, treated, and reused.
Connecting all these buildings at the heart of the complex is the public park. Recreational amenities include the children’s park, anaerobic exercise facilities, seating areas, and green landscapes that encourage activities and interactions across all ages.
Interview with LT Pagaduan Studio
Hello, LT Pagaduan Design Studio! Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions while you prepare for your WAF debut in November! Can you elaborate on the brief you received from the local government of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, besides the development of a new complex that could serve the area’s demand for the next 30 years?
Hi, Kanto! We consider all the stakeholders namely the vendors, traders, transport operators, and the local government as our clients for this project. It was clear from a series of consultations with them that they all wanted to transfer to a new and bigger site, as the existing complex is not capable of accommodating growth and expansion. The old complex was already dilapidated, lacked organization, and had no designated spaces for additional trade activities of the community.
Was it your idea to design four main structures namely the Inter-modal Terminal, Food and Retail Center, and the Wet and Dry Markets, or did the local government request facilities as such to form part of the complex? What were some of their non-negotiables?
The four main structures were already present in the old complex, but they were small and fragmented. This time, the community wanted all structures of the terminal and market complex to be master-planned in a cohesive, compact, and orderly manner. The new complex called for expanded passenger facilities for the terminal and more stalls and stores in the market to accommodate emerging MSMEs in the locality.
Tell us more about the project site. How accessible is it to the local community? What challenges and opportunities did it present in terms of the project’s function and design?
We were initially presented with three different site locations. The first and most ideal site is located within the town center about less than 500 meters from the old complex. The two other sites are about a kilometer away, as the government had this idea of decongesting the town center and creating a trade and transport hub that will entice people.
We decided to go with the nearest location as this is where the retail component will be most accessible to the community. It also allows the transport component to remain outside, meeting the client’s request to decongest the town center.
How did you design the complex with respect to the tradition and everyday culture of the community? What strengths of the previous facilities did you carry into the new design? What issues of the old complex did you aim to solve?
The vision is to create a modern trade and transport hub that is culturally sensitive and sustainable. For us, this is not all about form and aesthetics.
We studied the local conditions and how these structures affect the community’s way of life and their behavior in traveling, selling, and buying. We designed the retail stores to be open and porous, veering away from the typical glass windows and doors and incorporating only roll-up doors. Corridors were expanded to allow the display of goods without sacrificing the mobility of buyers.
The practice of haggling prices is part of Filipino culture, so we wanted to showcase this in the design. We strived to create a smooth transition from the corridors to the individual stores to facilitate buyer-seller interactions. We wanted to ensure that vendors knew that we understood how visibility equates to saleability for them.
Public markets in the Philippines are often perceived as musty and unsanitary, so people opt to go to supermarkets that are air-conditioned and more visually appealing. We wanted the new market to carry this, designing ergonomic wet market counters made from stainless steel to improve cleanliness, quality, and presentation. A damp floor is usually a product of poor drainage, so we introduced grease traps in every market stall to prevent solids from clogging the sewage pipes.
The design also encourages fresh air by expelling hot air above through louvers on high ceilings, with the structure having wide wall openings and large ceiling fans.
The solutions we offered are not complicated ones; we tried to fit them to the simplicity of the locality. We believe that this speaks of how we perceive modernity; it’s all about addressing and improving the pain points of a project using innovative materials and systems.
You mentioned the use of pre-engineered steel and prefabricated building components for the project. Can you describe how your selection of project materials aligns with the project’s goal of becoming a cost and energy-saving community complex?
The project site is a rice field, so it carries low-bearing soil capacity. To address this, we designed the buildings to be lightweight yet strong enough to resist regular earthquakes in the region. We leaned towards materials such as steel, glass, and aluminum and refrained from using concrete.
Pre-engineered steel structures are composed of A50 high-strength steel (stronger than our A36 local counterparts), requiring only slender structural sections resulting in a significant reduction of the overall weight of the building. With less weight comes fewer foundation sizes, which also reduces construction costs. Fabrication is done offsite in an ISO 9001-certified factory for quality assurance, and structural components are delivered on-site custom-built. This speeds up the process, cutting down construction to an average of two months with less demand for manpower and equipment and even less waste. Other energy-efficient systems such as solar photo-voltaic panels and sewage waste reuse were also incorporated through a sewage treatment plant, resulting in a higher rating for green building certification.
Public markets and transport terminals in the Philippines often sacrifice aesthetics for the sake of building something fast and easy. How did you refrain from falling into this trap? Is there a design strategy from this project that you particularly fought for or are most proud of?
Pre-engineered steel allows buildings to take more flexible forms—round, curved, irregular shapes—anything! Since steel members are neatly manufactured, frames and bolts can be exposed with very little cladding needed, resulting in a modern industrial structure.
For this project, we were able to explore a curve-shaped structure for the bus terminal building and a biophilic space frame structure inspired by the Moringa tree for the Food and Retail Center. Since high-strength steel can offer a wide span without intermediate supports, we were also able to maximize saleable floor area with less wastage.
We fought for the use of steel as we saw its many advantages, which we believe will eventually allow us to build a pleasing structure within the client’s timeline.
Besides incorporating a public park, how does your design ensure that the project appeals to the local community? What lessons did you learn from the experience in terms of transforming spaces such as trade and transport hubs into exciting experiences?
We envisioned the new complex not just as a trade and transport hub but as a place that offers an experience. In the Intermodal terminal, we hope to increase ridership by direct improvement to the overall experience of passengers upon boarding and arrival by providing arrival and departure gates and lounges, more bus bays to lessen waiting intervals, ticketing counters, informational kiosks and signages, pop-up vending areas, accessibility, and emergency services. Integration of high glass walls enhances transparency and openness from the interiors to the outdoors, serving departure guests with majestic views of Mt. Diwata and the surrounding green fields.
The Food and Retail Center will be the main attraction of the complex. It holds over 170 stores and kiosks spread across a variety of sections, ranging from food and beverage, fashion, housewares, fabrics, art, and furniture. We complemented this with a multi-purpose open hall for entertainment, allowing the bazaar to be a leisure and entertainment space from day to night. Through this project, we learned that with the right mix of people and activities, it is possible to transform everyday spaces such as markets and terminals into community destinations that encourage interaction and relaxation. •
