This is oneof the first questions we asked ourselves when asked to design a mixed usemarket facility. Words like context, layering, transparency, massing, inviting,prospect, aspect, and simplicity of materials all come to mind.
Oneof the most important things we wanted to look at was how the building wouldrelate to its context in a meaningful way. This kind of thinking is what led usto get away from the traditional “back of building” condition. The “back ofbuilding” condition has a negative impact on the surrounding context. In orderto achieve this, we propose treating every side, of the building, with an ampleamount of attention.
In trying torelate to the context, in a meaningful way, we saw the building communicating,to the city, at two different scales: the scale of the city, itself, and thescale of the person. This led to the idea of layering, and cantilevers. Theidea of layering starts to talks about how two different functions, an officeand market, might be able to work in a homogenous way. To achieve this westarted with pure geometry, carved, and cantilevered it in order to bring thesetwo functions together. In doing these things, the market starts to becomeinviting, and draw people in at the two different scales.  As these cantilevers attempt to relate at thetwo different scales, we thought it would be important to decide where themoments would occur.  The cantileveralong Lampkin begins to relate to the scale of the city whereas the cantileveralong Jackson begins to relate to the scale of the person.  To further the openness, of themarket, the “carves” are put on both major roadways. That way, neither roadwayis biased to having the “back of building” condition.  
Anotherimportant aspect of making the market more open and inviting is the idea oftransparency, and simplicity of materials. This brought us to the idea of“cutting” the building, in order to make it more transparent. Of course, thisdidn’t translate into the literal meaning of cutting. We thought of “cutting,”and “transparency” as one in the same. In order to achieve this idea of“transparency” we started to use angular geometry. Angular geometry, also, tiesback into the idea of “cutting” through the site.
            Simplicity of material, to us, meansusing as few materials as possible to achieve something that does not read asbeing, visually, complex. We did this through the use of two materials: brick,and glass. Our decision to use brick relates to idea of respecting thevernacular of downtown Starkville. The way we used, this brick, has to do withthe idea of the solid/void relationship. We felt like this is a way of compromisingpublic with private. The use of glass talks about how we mitigate the public aspectsof the spaces, and views.
            For the ideas of transportation, welooked at how market could be more pedestrian friendly rather than vehicularfriendly.  Seeing that the market isplaced in a very convenient location, we think that walking or biking could bean important factor of how the building can create the relationship of theperson and the person can create a relationship with the building as itinteracts with the environmental aspects of the site.
            Speaking more in depth of theenvironmental aspects of the building, we wanted the language of the buildingto become an important factor of how it mitigates solar heat gains.  To achieve this, we added a thermal mass toour flooring layered with a transparent glass to absorb and store heat.  The flooring could eventually save thebuilding on energy use.  The exteriordark red brick could also work as a thermal mass to store heat in the building.