Design studio Tjep and Vaastukalpa Architects have completed a market building that combines Bangladeshi construction techniques with "Dutch flair".
The project ? to create a series of Village Super Markets in Bangladesh ? was initiated by development organisation Solidaridad Network as a way to help smallholder farmers, disadvantaged workers and women in rural areas generate more income.

Franks Tjepkema's Amsterdam-based studio Tjep teamed up with local studio Vaastukalpa Architects to design a format for marketplaces that combine traditional stalls with modern facilities for education and community activities.
The first completed Village Super Market in the district of Khulna was designed to engender a sense of communal pride, and provide the necessary spaces to support better productivity and quality of life.
"This project appealed to me because of the challenge of uniting not only the modern and the traditional, but of incorporating many aspects that had nothing to do with market trade," Tjepkema explained.
The designer added that the building seeks to promote social cohesion and engagement with education by incorporating spaces for social and education functions alongside the market stalls.

Tjepkema was approached by Solidaridad's international programme coordinator aquaculture, Daniel Knoop, who was a fan of Tjep's conceptual proposal for self-sufficient habitable farms that mimic natural ecosystems to provide occupants with food, energy, heat ...