Sege Market: Spaces for collaborative consumption

SEGE MARKET
Spaces for collaborative consumption, Malmö, Sweden, 2017

Commissioned for the exhibition Commoning Kits at Form/Design Center in Malmö, Sege Market is a speculative intervention for the neighbourhood Sege Park. The project takes its cues from current models of collaborative consumption, where objects and experiences are sold, exchanged or shared through peer-to-peer networks. Where we all are consumers, producers as well as merchants. 

The market is conceived as an open game board framed by a post and lintel structure. It consists of a floor divided by a 3 x 3-meter grid, protected by a tall ceiling supported by columns. Together, the floor and the columns define sixteen spaces in which everything from food, to furniture, to vehicles can be shown and change owners. Spaces in the market can be booked by residents in Sege Park through a mobile app for various purposes and themes. A booked space in the grid is manifested architecturally by turned on lighting in the corresponding bay in the ceiling. Spaces can be booked for an hour-long event as well as for several days.

Objects are placed on the floor, on tables or suspended from the roof beams. The market is protected by a translucent roof and plastic film facades that can be opened or closed depending on weather or activity. Three larger, movable objects populate the game board permanently: a foldable bar, a seating platform and a ladder. These objects appear as characterful silhouettes between the columns and provide storage for tables and chairs. 

The design of Sege Market departs from the amazing experience of a dense agglomeration of wildly different objects and activities. Brought together, the colorful masses of objects produce a diverse interior landscape of compression and expansion – a pair of bookshelves suddenly define a narrow alley; vacant spaces form short-lived miniature plazas and a plastic flamingo momentarily becomes a monument. As objects and activities come and go, the market becomes a live interior, continuously in flux. 

Overall, Sege Market sets up links between the traditional city market stands, found in squares all over Malmö, and internet-based sharing services.

Project design: Norell/Rodhe
Team: Daniel Norell, Einar Rodhe, Hedvig Carlin