The Carbon market ‘redevelopment’: a missed opportunity for sustainable, social architecture

The Carbonhanong Alyansa and other vendors in Cebu City gathered last Wednesday to protest the "pedestrianization" of the Carbon Night Market. They claim this new setup is disorganized, discriminatory, and inaccessible to many vendors. According to a report by The FREEMAN, there's a sentiment among vendors that this change, along with the imposition of fees for amenities like tents and lighting, has greatly affected their livelihoods.

The protesting vendors also expressed their disagreement with the move to privatize the Carbon Market, the city’s largest and oldest public market, under a joint venture agreement with Megawide. They have proposed alternative solutions, like using the Warwick barracks as a parking lot, and insist that vendors on several streets should not be moved as they aren't part of the project site under the joint venture agreement.

The Carbon market redevelopment fiasco demonstrates the need for sensitive awareness of the multidimensional complexity of redesigning a public market, one that requires a critical balance among different disciplines and knowledge. The vendors’ struggle to sustain their businesses and support the basic needs of their families reflects the disconnect between the redevelopment's goals and the needs of its primary users.

In some people’s excitement around the joint venture agreement, touted as a ground-breaking project for Cebu's development, little was shared about the project's planning stage. Where was the detailed discussion of the planning process, the deliberation over the essential balance between technical, aesthetical, and social criteria designed to enhance community well-being? It was as though the key factors that distinguish a vibrant public space from mere commercialization and 'modernization' were overlooked.

This redevelopment project presented a golden opportunity for the City of Cebu to create a blueprint for 'social architecture.' It could have been a chance to focus on the people who use the market most --the vendors and the consumers. The city could have planned this project in a way that was flexible to the needs of these people. But, sadly, the city started a business agreement with a private company without this kind of planning. Now, we're seeing the results of this with protests and legal issues coming up around the project.

Public markets are far more than just commercial spaces; they are considered the lifeblood of sustainable cities and strong communities. They can be key to making a city like Cebu sustainable and more cohesive as a community. As many studies note, public markets can make people proud of where they live, encourage healthy living, help people understand why it's good to buy local, and get people thinking about their responsibility to the environment.

But the way the redevelopment of the Carbon public market is going, it looks like it's forgetting about the people it should be serving. Instead of a collaborative, user-centric approach, we're witnessing protests and growing disillusionment. The place is starting to feel more like one of those private market places and hawker centers that you see in some parts of the city, devoid of originality and aping aesthetics of similar centers in other cities abroad --a far cry from a historically vibrant public market we want Carbon to maintain and enhance.

If the users and stakeholders had been included from the start of the redevelopment process, many of these issues could have been resolved easily, if not averted. Their involvement would have built trust in the project, and made vendors and consumers feel more confident about the changes. However, the reality has turned out to be quite different. We're now seeing protests like these, while the government only seems to be paying attention to people's concerns because there's an election looming in a couple of years.

The Carbon Market redevelopment should have been an opportunity to build something good for the community and the environment. Instead, it's turning into a warning of what can go wrong when you prioritize profits over listening to the people who use a place the most.

As one study argues (Al-Shidhani, 2021), “focusing on profit gains when designing a public market results in an incomplete public market program. Integrating the local culture into the market space through design and programming elevates the market experience to be a place of interaction, expressions, and commerce to create a unique presence and identity. A strong experience of space creates a sense of belonging where users are part of the space and contribute to the success of it.”