Architectural Transformation of a Night Market Stall

This paper would like to recognize and adapt upcoming trends in architectural design in its most basic and minimal form – a new-generation night market stall. The night market is a common scene in Malaysia that attracts both local townspeople and tourists for various reasons. Composed simply and usually of individual make shift stalls arranged in rows - it is worth noting that the design of these stalls have remained essentially the same for decades despite the rapid changes and technological advancements in architecture. Recent trends in the advancement of this field include the exploration and implementation of transformable structures and the study of flexibility as key architectural features. In addition to that, research is also being conducted to develop design and construction technologies for foldable kinetic architecture. Social behaviour and lifestyle patterns play a major role in the design of the built environment, thus it is important to observe and include in our research that our society has become increasingly digitally driven and media-oriented. It is therefore logical to look into new possibilities for architecturally transforming the design of the night market stall. This paper begins by presenting a specific study on the current functional and environmental requirements of night market stalls in Malaysia. These requirements are discerned and considered alongside selected current architectural developments as well as other emerging non-architectural technologies. Thereafter, we shall explore and propose the design of a new-generation night market stall from six key aspects – namely: 1) deployable structures, 2) portability, 3) flexibility, 4) digital adaptation, 5) media integration and 6) energy consumption.