The Urban Modular Fish Farm
A research and spatial design project, intended to address how fish farming is harming the planet, our health and the local fish market in Spain. Exploring how a physical space could potentially be a solution to many issues that are a result of this phenomenon.
Group project by Irene Delgado & John Huth
Research Diagram
The Urban Modular Fish Farm is a strategic & spatial design project that aims to solve and call for a counter trend towards the unsustainable hake consumption of non local hake species, strongly promoted by the immense Spanish seafood consumption.
The end goal is to contribute to a more sustainable hake consumption by expanding local hake production and thereby reducing the demand of foreign fish, fished in unsustainable and unethical manners.
This goal could be achieved through creating a spatial design that addresses the high annual demand of hake fish in Madrid, (taking into account that 40% of spaniards affirm that they prefer to consume local / national fish products) but supplying this high demand through sustainable methods, undoing the damage caused by unsustainable fisheries and making Spain self sufficient with hake fish.
This Research Diagram tells the story of our investigation from top to bottom, starting from the report that sparked our curiosity about this topic, growing into a web of consequences of this phenomenon, and ending at the health repercussions to humans of the “fake hake” market.
Our solution
These discoveries have shaped the remedy that was developed to treat this phenomenon, which was to create a systematic installation of greenhouses and aquariums that embody a marine aquaponic urban farm with attention to the difficulties of Madrid's dense urban area. The end goal is to contribute to a more sustainable hake consumption by expanding local hake production and thereby reducing the demand of foreign fish, fished in unsustainable and unethical manners.
The proposed system of greenhouses and aquariums is designed to be installed in a central Corte Ingles in Madrid, in the form of 6 giant domes that pierce through the building. The top of the domes are occupied with aquaponic greenhouse spaces, and the body of the domes are the aquariums where the fish production takes place. On the second-to last floor, the machinery for processing the fish is installed, and the top floor is enabled for leisure space, with the shadow of the domes above.
Why aquaponics?
As a result of aiming to have large numbers of healthy fish in an up to 30,000 m3 aquarium, the maintenance of the water quality is vital. A solution to closing the loop is to implement a marine aquaponic system, a salt water filtration system using plants to live from the waste produced by fish while simultaneously cleaning and maintaining water quality suitable for the fish. With such a system in place maintenance costs can be reduced and fewer technology is required.
Fish Processing Machine, installed at the top floor of the building
Project location
Europe’s top department store El Corte Inglés pulled a batch of more than a ton of mislabeled fish from its shelves when told of ICIJ’s findings. Their desire to be transparent to their customers is a main driver of why it would be relevant to collaborate with them. This decision is based on including this retail giant as part of the solution as they are already largely tied to the hake market in Spain.
The exact location is El Corte Ingles at Calle de la Princesa.