The harbor remembers.
Fishing labor, shipbuilding and settlement formed a productive edge between city and sea.
ARCHITECTURE · DESIGN RESEARCH · 2026
MARENOVA
Life emerges
in the gaps.
A harbor built by work.
Fishing, shipbuilding and exchange form the first layer of the project.
Water draws the first line.
The tide becomes a tool for reading movement, wind and public access.
The mass becomes porous.
Three volumes remain connected by the civic space carved between them.
Life returns to the edge.
Market, culture and waterfront activity occupy the gaps together.
01 / THESIS
A HARBOR IN TRANSITION
How can a declining fish market become civic infrastructure—without erasing the working harbor?
MARENOVA joins mare—sea—with nova—renewal.
It does not preserve fishing culture as a still image. Like water carving coastal rock, public movement opens a solid plate into three connected volumes. The gaps carry wind, light, harbor views and collective life through the market.
CONDITIONA working harbor losing continuity
→DESIGN ACTOpen the mass through tidal erosion
→OUTCOMEA market that becomes civic waterfront
Water becomes an instrument.
Currents press into the mass, tracing routes of arrival, ventilation and public movement.
The solid plate opens.
One reef-like field is cut into three readable zones. The space between them becomes architecture.
Public life returns to the water.
Market, community and cultural programs remain distinct, yet are bound by continuous circulation.
03 / SPATIAL SYSTEM
ARCHITECTURE AS A TIDAL SECTION
Four systems.
One continuous harbor.
A canopy lifted by the harbor wind.
The boat-like profile shelters the market while keeping the waterfront horizon open.
An exposed frame carries memory.
The long-span trusses translate the industrial strength of Zhengbin into a civic framework.
Production remains visible.
Auction, fresh market, processing and dining form a legible working sequence.
The gaps become shared rooms.
Bridges, terraces and waterfront platforms reconnect daily life with the sea.
SECTIONAL CONTINUITY
Market ↔ public waterfront ↔ community culture
04 / PROJECT READER
THE COMPLETE DESIGN ARGUMENT
From a declining market
to living harbor infrastructure.
MARENOVA is organized as a sequence of causes and responses. Each move begins with an existing harbor condition and turns it into spatial, environmental and civic value.
MEMORYPRESSUREEROSIONGAPSOCCUPATIONRENEWAL
WORKING MEMORY
Culture begins with labor.
Zhengbin’s identity was shaped by fishing, shipbuilding, family work and exchange at the water’s edge. The project treats these practices as active knowledge—not imagery to be displayed after they disappear.
THE CHALLENGE
Renewal without displacement.
As fishing activity declines and younger generations leave, the market risks becoming isolated from both community and waterfront. MARENOVA introduces public life while keeping production visible, so tourism supports rather than replaces the working harbor.
SITE POSITION
A threshold, not an object.
The site sits between industrial heritage, fishing settlement, working water and everyday community life. Its role is therefore connective: an urban hinge where arrival, market activity, cultural memory and the harbor meet.
FORM + ENVIRONMENT
Water carves the architecture.
A reef-like plate is eroded into three connected volumes. Their gaps admit prevailing harbor wind, daylight and long views to the sea. Rotated and lifted fragments form shaded passages, terraces and public rooms rather than leftover space.
PROGRAM + MOVEMENT
Production becomes public life.
Auction, fresh market, processing, dining, exhibition and gathering are arranged as one legible sequence. A generous civic spine connects levels and volumes, allowing residents and visitors to encounter the making, trading and culture of the harbor.
STRUCTURE + IDENTITY
A roof drawn from the sea.
Long-span trusses create an open working floor while a lifted, boat-like canopy recalls maritime construction without imitation. The exposed frame gives the new public market the clarity and resilience of harbor infrastructure.
WHY MARENOVAMare means sea; nova means renewal. Together they describe a project in which the sea is not scenery but an active force—shaping form, climate, movement and collective life.
05 / OCCUPATION
A WORKING CIVIC WATERFRONT
Not only a place to buy fish.
A place to meet the harbor.
By day, the building supports auction, preparation and exchange. Across the same circulation network, dining, exhibitions and waterfront terraces extend its life beyond trading hours. Local residents and visitors share the harbor without separating culture from the work that produced it.
01 / INSIDE THE MARKET
Trade becomes encounter.
The generous circulation spine lets selling, dining and everyday community life overlap.
02 / TOWARD THE HARBOR
The sea returns to daily life.
Walking, viewing and harbor activity remain continuously visible from the public edge.
06 / PROJECT FILMFrom fishing memory
From fishing memory
to renewed public life.
PROJECT ARGUMENT
The gap is not leftover space.
It is where renewal begins.
MARENOVA reconnects production, culture and public life. It preserves the working character of Zhengbin not by freezing the harbor in time, but by giving its knowledge, rituals and spaces new public relevance. Architecture becomes the reef; circulation becomes the tide; and the spaces carved between them become a living civic waterfront.