Pasar Wetan Revitalisation

A working wet market re-roofed and re-planned in four phases, so that not one of its 180 traders lost a day of business.

The existing sheet roof leaked, trapped heat and turned the aisles dark. Closing the market to fix it was never an option — for most of the traders a week without a stall is a month without income.

The work was cut into four quadrants. Each was cleared, rebuilt and reoccupied in eleven weeks while traders moved into a temporary shed on the car park, then rotated back into their original pitch.

The new roof is a lightweight steel truss with clerestory glazing along every ridge and open ends for stack ventilation. Aisles were widened by 600mm, drainage channels were relaid to fall, and the fish section was moved to the windward edge.