As a result of an Agreement between the Government of Panama and the Andalusian International Cooperation Agency, we were commissioned to design the Center for Storage, Processing and Marketing of Artisan Fishing Products of Rio Hato, Coclé Region. It is the already well-known as the Rio Hato Market.
With this Agreement they expected to support Artisan Fishing in one of the more depressed areas of the country, by means of a facility located just by the Interamericana Highway that could be much visited, given also that many of the biggest resorts of Panama are located nearby. The project was drawn up in Spain, and afterwards adapted to Panamanian rules and buildings standards by a multidisciplinary team from both countries.
More than a strictly speaking market, the building would be a complex of mixed uses linked to the promotion or artisanal fishing: retail market, restaurant, bank, traditional craftwork shop, wholesale market, sewage farm, etc. The architectural response, built with a very low budget and using very simple construction techniques, arranges the building program around an access parking square which is surrounded by a continuous open porch that links all the activities.