Ralph's Farm Market, Murrayville, Langley

A one-of-a-kind stamped asphalt parking lot at Ralph's Farm Market: red brick StreetPrint walkways and aprons that tie the site to the store's branding, built in partnership with the manufacturer.

Ralph's Farm Market on Fraser Highway in Murrayville began as a seasonal hay wagon and grew into a year-round market. When the owners upgraded the parking lot they wanted a surface that reflected the care they put into the rest of the operation: a lot that works for customers and delivery vehicles and looks as though a designer specified it.

Square One and the manufacturer worked together on a custom stamped asphalt design that ties in the store's branding. StreetPrint, the asphalt imprinting system, presses the brick pattern into the asphalt with a heated steel template; StreetBond colour is then rolled into the imprint, in tones chosen to complement the market's palette. The manufacturer publishes StreetPrint with a 10–20 year service life, a slip-resistant textured surface, and snowplow and de-icing salt safety, practical properties for a working parking lot.

The photographs show red brick walkways and aprons running across the black lot: out from the market's entrance sign to the stalls, a T-junction of walkways with a pickup parked beside it, and a border strip along the garden beds. The lot still does its practical work, drainage, clear lane markings, accessible pathways, while the walkways carry the brand outdoors. A retailer planning a lot should ask for the pedestrian routes to be stamped and coloured and the parking field left plain.

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