Light filters through hundreds of rectangular slits into this towering market hall in Ghent, Belgium, which is one of the five finalists for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2013.
为了找回昔日的辉煌景象，建筑工作室 Marie-José Van Hee 和 Robbrecht & Daem 设计了这座 Market Hall，给市民们提供了一个公共休闲和活动的场地。Market Hall 同样是尖顶，高度低于三幢塔楼，并不抢夺它们的光芒；但建筑天顶和立面都使用木头和玻璃，采光良好，仰望时堪称“星光熠熠”。木材等传统材料的使用，也是向古老的历史致敬。
Designed by Belgian studios Robbrecht & Daem and Marie-José Van Hee, the dual-gabled timber and concrete structure references the gabled forms of a nearby town hall to provide a grand shelter between the gothic structures of a church and belfry in the centre of the city.
The site had formally served as a car park, but the architects have paved over the ground surfaces to create a new public square. The 40-metre-long Market Hall stretches across the square and is open on all sides, allowing pedestrians to enter from any direction.
Four chunky concrete feet support the asymmetric roof at each of its corners. Glass squares clad the exterior surfaces of the building to protect the timber from the elements. A fireplace is positioned inside one of the concrete feet for use during an annual festival and lets smoke out through a chimney in the roof.
The building was named on the shortlist for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in January, alongside a nursing home in Portugal, a concert hall in Iceland, a timber canopy in Spain and a city park in Denmark.
