MERCATO METROPOLITANO
Ilford
Ilford​​
Food market
Status : Completed​
Mercato Metropolitano has been granted a temporary Planning Permission for five years to build a covered community food market on the former Chadwick Road Carpark to the rear of Redbridge Town Hall.​
Commissioned by Mercato Metropolitano and delivered within the regeneration framework of Redbridge’s cultural quarter, Mercato Metropolitano Ilford transforms a former town-hall car park into a covered community food market designed for circularity, adaptability, and eventual relocation.
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Project Team :
Client: Mercato Metropolitano
Architect: Interrobang (Stages 0–4); Clark Architecture (Stage 4–completion)
Structural & MEP Engineer: Webb Yates (Stages 0–4); Rebus Engineering / Bocca
Consulting (Stage 4–completion)
Project Manager: Clark Architecture; Milbank
Main Contractor: Oyster Design & Construction
Circular Economy Principals are considered throughout the design, construction and running of the project whereby materials and resources are kept in use for as long
as possible, waste is designed out, and regenerative, circular systems are put in place.
Conceived as a five-year meanwhile use, the project explores a low-impact architectural strategy: a fully demountable timber hall that sits lightly on the ground and can be dismantled, reconfigured, or redeployed on future sites. The structure is conceived as a modular “kit-of-parts” of glulam frames and CLT panels, clad in translucent polycarbonate to maximise daylight while minimising material weight and construction waste.
The open, naturally ventilated market hall accommodates independent food traders, communal seating, and community programmes, while back-of-house circular systems - including on-site food-waste processing and recycling - support Mercato Metropolitano’s zero-waste ethos.
Exposed services and chimney flues are integrated into the structural grid, giving the building a robust, infrastructural character that expresses its productive function.
Beyond its immediate role as a local food destination, the project positions architecture as temporary yet durable urban infrastructure - demonstrating how demountable timber construction can reduce embodied carbon, enable reuse, and activate underused urban land while preserving its future development potential.
