Baguio City'S Wet Market: Integrating Smart Architecture
The community’s diversity, public health and urban life can be greatly affected and revitalized by its commercial activity. All over the globe, market cities continues to develop and influence social interaction and localities. Commercial activities between urban and rural economies are greatly enhanced by the immersion of market cities. The trade between these economies enhances development in several areas such as real estate, infrastructure and boosts local neighborhood business. A public market in particular creates new business ventures with little risks; this encourages business growth and encourages vendors to engage in local goods production. Markets play an essential role in the community from increasing access to fresh and healthy food to providing essential revenue streams, and markets positively impact local businesses, governments, and residents. One of its most essential influences is in line with its social impact. Public markets become a space for social interaction where ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic communities are built. Public markets also serve as a place where people feel a sense of belonging and thus are considered main civic centers.
A wet market is generally an open food market, which functions have been associated with the selling of live stocks out in the open area. This includes poultry, fish, and meats. In the past, people usually go to the wet market where they get their needs before the supermarkets became a trend. The market serves as an income generator and creates a sense of belonging in the community. The term "wet market" is derived from the market's wet floors which are caused by the melting of ice used to ensure the freshness of perishable goods being sold and by stall holders who routinely clean their stalls by spraying them with water. Furthermore, wet markets are typically divided into two sections, which are the wet and dry section. The "wet" section where fresh produce, meat, fish and live animals are sold, and a "dry" section where stalls selling goods such as spices, rice, dried noodles, dried seafood, and beans are located.
Markets are expected to continue to serve as one of the major sources of fresh produce and goods for the general public in the years to come. It is then important that standards on hygiene and food handling procedures are met to create a comfortable and safe shopping environment for patrons. Moreover, markets function as major nodes of urban commerce that plays an important role in the urban food system. "People nowadays are acting on health concern by purposely seeking fresh, high quality and environment-friendly food, especially food that is grown locally". Marketplaces are not just a setting for commercial activities, but it also plays an important role in food systems such as placemaking and community economic development. A city without a marketplace cannot function, because it lacks the platform where layers of the community could gather and socialize, also where tangible and intangible culture could be felt in its sense of place. "From day to day public market is developing from many aspects, in term of its structural design and an increase of facilities provided".
Considering the notions of time, efficiency, interactivity, ecology, and environmental issues, concerning buildings will result in green landscapes and projects with environmental responsibility add-ons. These projects involve thinking regarding interaction, the minimum use of materials and energy, and careful planning over more extended periods of time, to reduce the negative environmental impacts of infrastructure development. This kind of approach entails the application of new plans in the areas of building and construction. Furthermore this approach needs the involvement of intelligent systems to attain sustainability. Analyzing the challenges and opportunities presents a smart way to fulfill user demands now and years to come. Smart architecture involves environmental awareness, not just in terms of protecting our environment but also in energy and material efficiency. It is an architectural strategy that sees technology not as an enemy of nature but as an ally. “Smart Architecture is a human-made ecosystem that is able to respond and react to both positive and negative feedback from its environment”.
The city of Baguio has served as a multi-cultural community for over a hundred years. The present Baguio City Market has served as the central hub for commerce of Kafagway. The area also became the heart of local and urban trade showcasing produces from the neighboring communities like the Mountain Provinces. Furthermore the market served the local community and the tourists or viajeros. Since the introduction of the public market to the community, the area has been zoned to four major sections. The area has then been categorized to blocks one to four which consists trades in footwear, caldero (kitchen wares), tobacco, dry goods, rice, fruit, flowers and other produce of the local and nearby communities. . The current population and its continuous growth resulted to the degeneration of the public market. The current situation of the area presents cramped spaces, poor to inadequate drainage systems, and ineffective waste disposal systems; this then calls for immediate actions through maintenance and development.
Baguio city's Public Market is one of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) future projects. The CDP also specified the problems and issues that the market facility are facing which are an inadequate market facility, lack of parking spaces in the market area and commercial hubs, shortage of water and ineffective solid and liquid waste management systems.
