Commercial buildings

thumb|Exterior view of the Bedesten of Edirne, Turkey, built by Sultan [[Mehmed I between 1413 and 1421 CE]] A bedesten (variants: bezistan, bezisten, bedestan) is a type of covered market or market hall which was historically found in the cities of the Ottoman Empire. It was typically the central building of the commercial district of an Ottoman town or city, where the most important and precious goods (like gold and jewellery) were kept and sold. Its function was comparable or equivalent to that of a qaysariyya in other (usually Arabic-speaking) regions, though the architecture of the latter

thumb|upright=1.2|A terraced layout allows a row of shophouses to extend as long as a city block permits, as exemplified by this long row of shophouses in Singapore. All the shophouses are linked by a covered passageway called the [[five-foot way at the front.]]

historic building in the marketplace of a European town

building associated with any aspect of the various activities and business relationships of industry and trade