Mount Bazaar

A temporary mountain built from modular scaffolding on a river island combines a market, a public garden and a raised lookout in one porous structure. It was made for an urban space art season, and its stepped outline answers the cranes, sheds and other remains of a former shipyard.

The frame is assembled from 1.5-metre-square scaffolding units on a parallelogram plan, rising to a peak at the north-west corner before stepping down across the site. Two sloping sides guide people north and south into a triangular market beneath, where stalls stand in two rows under a vaulted canopy, keeping the centre clear as a route.

Zigzag stairs and suspended platforms climb through the frame to an open walk at the summit, where visitors can pause above the market and look across the river. Seating folded into the street and plaza edges extends the structure’s public role.

Overlapping blue membranes stretch across the market roof for shade and give the grey system an identity, their translucency lightening the stepped profile. After dark the membranes glow from within, and the red guard panels on the stairs are traced with LED strips, drawing a vivid route through the frame among the island’s industrial relics.