English
The Market
Baucau, Baucau, Timor
Equipment and Infrastructures
A building of unusual size for Timor, whose colonial architecture is not known for either its richness or originality, Baucau market was constructed on the initiative of Lieutenant Armando Eduardo Pinto Correia, administrator of that district from 1928 to 1934. Opened in October 1932, the market, the size of which came under fire from government bodies as being too opulent and excessive, was part of a vast plan by Pinto Correia to build public buildings, two residen- ces for the administrator, one in Baucau and another in Venilale, premises for the District Secretariat and the Local Board and a series of schools in the main towns of the region. With its French-influenced design, in the fashion of the European academies that designed pavilions for fairs and exhibitions in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, the Baucau market acquired an unexpected place in the community due to the lightness of its lines and the clever way it was placed between the hillside and the meadowlands. The market itself is on the upper level, while the lower level is a kind of public square overlooked by the building. The different levels of the two parts are divided by a blank retaining wall of mortar, with an immense staircase climbing up each side from the two towers to a landing in front of a central arch. In the centre, between the two stairways and reinforcing the central axis of the composition, is a portal topped by a pediment and flanked by two columns with phytomorphic capitals that lighten the character of the lower level by introducing a refined architectural element that in turn gives the place a serenity more appropriate to a temple. The light construction of the market itself, composed of a semi-circular gallery with a colonnade and architraves between the columns stands on the lower level. Two towers at the extremities and the triumphal arch in the centre with two lesser lateral arches in Serlian fashion have a lightness that is accentuated by the whitewash. In the roofing of the colonnaded gallery and the towers is another whitewashed balustrade that accentuates the light, suspended air of the building, like a delicate veil that drops to the ground on the handrails of the stairways, with balustrades and small pillars on the inclinations. The effects of a mindless intervention that transformed the building can also be felt, an intervention that eliminated the difference in the volume between the lower and upper bodies of the market. The lower portal with its pediment and columns was eliminated, which ruined the refinement of the composition, as it was replaced with a whitewashed wall that made the stairway look banal. Grandeur gave way to size and, if that were not enough, the whole system of architraves between the columns of the upper floor colonnade was decorated with lobular arches that transformed the building.
