RIKEA.
Community Project, Flea Market Turin, Italy.

RIKEA (2008) is a prototype for a micro-urban infrastructure conceived for the Ballon flea market in Porta Palazzo, Turin. Developed in response to a competition launched by the Italian magazine Abitare under the direction of Stefano Boeri, the project addresses the market as a condition of instant urbanization — a temporary city emerging weekly through use, occupation, and shared spatial rules. The project was later exhibited at Pala Fuksas in 2008 and received a special mention at the exhibition Squat City during the 4th Rotterdam Architecture Biennale in 2009.

The Ballon flea market, considered one of the most economically fragile markets in Europe, operates through informal yet highly structured spatial practices. Through direct collaboration with the merchant community, RIKEA identified three primary needs:
– marking individual merchant positions on the pavement;
– providing temporary roof structures to protect goods from weather conditions;
– enabling secure transport of goods from parking areas to market positions during setup.

Rather than addressing these issues separately, RIKEA proposed a single integrated system combining all three into a modular micro-infrastructure. Pavement tiles developed with Italcementi were designed to define and personalize merchant positions within public space. These tiles supported temporary structural elements assembled using IKEA’s Broder system to create lightweight shelters. In parallel, the foldable Svingen sofa (IKEA) was adapted to function as both a trolley for transporting goods and a display device during market hours.

By reconfiguring mass-produced industrial components into situational urban infrastructure, RIKEA operates as an early experiment in industrial hacking. Rather than designing new objects, the project reorganizes existing systems into a temporary yet coherent urban framework. In this sense, RIKEA anticipates a dimension later formalized within Epistemic Design: design does not introduce form from outside, but rearticulates the operational logic of existing materials, actors, and conditions.

Displace — RIKEA displaces urban infrastructure from permanent and centralized systems to temporary, use-based configurations emerging through occupation and collective need.

Expose — The project exposes the informal spatial and logistical logic of the flea market, making visible its organizational structures rather than replacing them.

Mediate — RIKEA mediates between merchants, designers, and industrial partners by translating local practices into adaptable systems built from standardized components.

Activate — The project activates the flea market community by providing tools that enable merchants to self-organize, construct, and manage their spatial environment collectively.

Through minimal intervention and systemic recombination, RIKEA treats the market not as a problem to be formalized, but as a living urban condition to be structurally supported.