Osborn Plaza Market Canopy
01  /  Studio  /  Fall 2026

Osborn Plaza Market Canopy

A fleet of deployable bamboo-and-reed carts that turns a Brownsville plaza into a Wednesday farmers’ market, then folds down into everyday shaded seating.

Year
Fall 2026
Type
Senior studio / Midterm
Location
Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY
Tools
Rhino 8, Python, Ladybug, Photoshop

Osborn Plaza sits on a raised block of the former Osborn Street. It has trees, murals and movable cafe tables, but little shade in the late afternoon, exactly when a neighbourhood market would open.

The project proposes one deployable unit that works in three modes. On market day 15 units line a single aisle from the south gate to Belmont Avenue; the rest of the week 10 of them drop to bench height and give the plaza shaded seats. Bamboo carries, reed shades, planting cools.

15units on market day
10units as everyday benches
−21%summer-afternoon sun on the plaza, market day
−68%sun on the ground under the canopies

Design process

  1. Read the blockHeat 5/5, 70% no car, 42% on SNAP
  2. A market that folds awayUtilities below: no footings
  3. One unit, three modesTable, bench, transport
  4. Bamboo carries, reed shades223 → 48 kg CO₂ per frame
  5. A fleet fills the plaza15 units on market day, 10 as benches
  6. Shade as infrastructureDaily seating between markets

One cart, two lives

Scroll to deploy it, drag to turn it

One cart, two lives: the bamboo and reed canopy arrives folded, deploys on site and lifts into a market table. For the Wednesday farmers’ market 15 units fill Osborn Plaza; 10 stay on as shaded benches the rest of the week, traced here through a July day of real sun and shadow.

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    1. 06Reed shade skin
    2. 05Folding bamboo wings
    3. 04Telescoping mast
    4. 03Lift top: seat to table
    5. 02Planted box
    6. 01Swing-out outriggers
    Explore the model

    Real-time sun and shade

    Drag the date and time to watch sunlight and shadows move across the plaza, or choose Live now to follow the current time in New York. Switch between 15 market canopies and 10 everyday benches, fold and unfold every cart on site, or turn the canopies off to see the same sun on the bare plaza, then step into the scene at eye level. This is a clear-sky visualization, not live weather; the shade map samples the plaza floor on a 2 ft grid.

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    The market street

    Stalls face each other across a 3.5 m aisle, after the Main Street market model. Vegetables and fruit anchor the gate; an info, EBT and health desk and a kitchen demo sit in the south-east court; the planted middle stays open for classes.

    Every unit was placed by script against the surveyed planters, trunks, benches and lanterns, and a 1.8 m accessible route was checked from the gate to every stall front.

    Axonometric of market day, hidden-line from the Rhino model; trees drawn transparent.
    Market day, 16 July, 4 pm: the reed canopies throw dappled shade over the stalls and the aisle (sun position from Ladybug, shadows rendered in Blender Cycles, AI-assisted finish).
    Everyday mode, 16 July, 1:30 pm: the same carts as shaded benches; people sit in a soft pool of reed-filtered shade while the paving around them is in full sun.

    Plans and sections

    Market day1/8″ = 1′-0″
    Roof plan, market day: 15 units in table mode, 1/8″ = 1′-0″.
    Everyday1/8″ = 1′-0″
    Roof plan, everyday: 10 units dropped to shaded benches, 1/8″ = 1′-0″.
    03.1Roof plans: one fleet of deployable units, two configurations of the same plaza.
    03.2Section A-A, farmers’ market1/8″ = 1′-0″

    15 units in table mode, looking east. Zoom Z1 enlarges one unit at 1/2″ = 1′-0″: shoppers at the stall, the reed screen, knife-plate node, telescoping mast, lift and planted box.

    03.3Section A-A, everyday1/8″ = 1′-0″

    The same carts lowered to 10 shaded benches. Zoom Z2 shows the same unit dropped to seat height at 1/2″ = 1′-0″, with the canopy kept at +7′-8″.

    03.4Structure in detail1-1/2″ & 1″ = 1′-0″

    The canopy knife-plate node at 1-1/2″ = 1′-0″ and the base (mast sleeve, lift track, caster, fold-out foot) at 1″ = 1′-0″, re-drawn from the same model vectors.

    03.5Section B-B across the former Osborn Street1/8″ = 1′-0″

    Stalls above, street utilities below (schematic).

    03.6Long elevation of the west row1/8″ = 1′-0″

    W1-W6 and the Belmont pairs.

    03.7One unit, two heights1/4″ = 1′-0″

    Table at 2′-8″ for selling standing, seat at 1′-6″ with a backrest.

    Sun and shade

    Peak summer, June to August, noon to 5 pm, simulated with Ladybug Tools and Radiance on the site model and a LiDAR model of the neighbouring buildings. The market canopies cut solar radiation on the plaza by 21% and on the ground beneath them by two thirds; the everyday benches cut it by 13%.

    On a 92 °F July afternoon the whole plaza is in strong heat stress, with or without canopies, but very strong heat stress (UTCI above 38 °C) drops from 21% to 9% of the plaza. The reed lets 30% of the sun through, trading a little shade for airflow.

    Cumulative solar radiation, June-August 12:00-17:00 (no canopies / market day / everyday), and UTCI at 14:00 on a July heat day.
    04.1Sun angle test, 21 July

    65-68% of the plaza is in direct sun at 13:00-14:00; the market canopies bring this down to 52-54%.

    Material and structure

    A hybrid frame keeps 5 aluminium spine rails that carry the lift mechanism and replaces the wings with laminated bamboo, cutting frame emissions by about half while storing carbon.

    Planted boxes at both ends bring back the green, cooling edge of the first study. Every joint is bolted, pinned or clipped, so worn parts are swapped rather than repaired; bamboo rails sit on the mast heads through stainless knife plates and isolated bolts.

    One unit taken apart, drawn from the model: reed shade panels, bamboo wings, aluminium masts, table slats, lift and chassis, with the two planted boxes slid out.
    05.1The joint between bamboo and metal3″ = 1′-0″

    A steel knife plate slots into the laminated bamboo rail and two stainless bolts pin it to the mast head; rubber and nylon keep the bamboo off the metal.

    Market day with the planted boxes at the ends of each cart.

    Urban systems

    Food, health, heat, mobility, housing and water around the plaza, read at four scales: the city, Community District 16, the five-minute walk and the plaza itself. Every map is drawn from NYC open data at a true scale.

    Grocery stores are within 300 ft, yet premature death is twice the city rate; heat vulnerability is 5 of 5; seven in ten households have no car; 83% of homes within a five-minute walk are NYCHA. The canopy is a walking market and daily shade for its neighbours, not more retail.

    City heat vulnerability and the plaza at 1″ = 40′-0″.
    Key figures for Brownsville against New York City.
    Food system, public health, heat and green: one five-minute-walk map or chart per system.
    Mobility, housing and land use.

    Operation

    How one unit deploys

    1. Roll inOn casters, one person
    2. Fold out the feetWiden the base
    3. Raise the tableScissor lift to 2′-8″
    4. Unfold the reed canopyWings + telescoping masts
    5. Everyday: drop to a benchSame cart, 1′-6″ seat

    Presentation boards

    Bio-based material research
    The market in the plaza
    Street, plaza and what lies below
    Street and canopy sections
    Assembly and material
    Plaza plans
    The market street and its materials
    How one unit stands up
    Urban systems research

    Renders are AI-assisted from Rhino base views of the model; structural figures are design-stage hand calculations.