Backyard Aquaculture

[Image: From a project for fish-farming the Thames by Benedetta Gargiulo, part of a recent design studio at the Architectural Association taught by Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos; via Pruned].

A passing comment on the previous post has me thinking that a fantastic, Pruned-inspired summer architectural studio could be organized around the idea of turning backyard swimming pools not into mausoleum-like, subterranean granny flats, but experimental fish farms and hatcheries, alternative-energy algae-breeding ponds and other avant-garde aquacultural installations. Architecture as artificial ecosystem.
Could you reimagine the food production infrastructure of a city through the aquacultural transformation of its backyard swimming pools?

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Blogger Dave Donley said...

Hi!

Go here for people that are actually converting swimming pools (in Australia, even) into aquaponics (fish + vegetables) systems:

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/

December 11, 2008 1:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love it! With algae ponds, people could grow their own carbon offsets/sinks and cover them with an attractive floating island. Beautiful in so many ways.

Have you ever read "The Swimmer" by John Cheever?

December 11, 2008 2:38 PM  
Blogger pete v said...

Didn't Cheech and Chong cultivate a backyard swimming pool in one of the films?

December 11, 2008 4:18 PM  
Blogger Art said...

Geoff -- are you familiar with the Rhizome Collective in Austin, TX? They advocate constructed wetlands and backyard aquaculture (among other innovative. low-tech practices) in their very interesting book ("Toolbox for Sustainable City Living -- A Do-it-Ourselves Guide"), as well as workshops.

Here's a look at some of the stuff they do:

http://archive.rhizomecollective.org/virtualTour.html

Pretty cool!

December 11, 2008 4:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been looking into ways to use our pool to raise frogs, tilapia or catfish. Thanks for your great site and thanks to the other commenters for the links!

December 11, 2008 10:11 PM  

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