Urban Fish Farms

[ Fish Tower by Hsing-O Chiang ]

While urban vertical farming is widely used idea for emergent architecture, urban fish farms are newly introduced through student projects. The Fish Tower project by Hsing-O Chiang, a student from Taiwan, won Honorable Mention in eVolo skyscraper competition. This vertical fish farming uses advanced technology of aquaponics, where fish are raised in tanks, here in vertical building. This allows 30 times efficiency compared to traditional domestic fish farms. By providing domesticated farmed fish to the city, the pressure on wild fish will be alleviated. Although the structure of the building seems weak to hold the water-filled heavy ceramic tanks, I advocate the idea to feed the people in urban cities with domesticated food instead of consuming imported or wild fish.

A more realistic project of fish farming by a student in University of Oregon is "Reconditioning the Urban." The project places itself alongside of the waterfront of the Willamette and cleans the pumped river water through bio-filtering system and then farms fish in the clean water and farms vegetables on the site. The fish disposals are used as fertilizers for vegetables. The goods are transported deep into the city by the moving sub-hubs for easy access to the locals.

Only few years ago, the idea of "vertical farming," introduced by Dr. Dickson Despommier, was used merely as conceptual idea for architecture. Now, the idea is used in many real projects and many are already built. Likewise, this wild but feasible idea of farming fish in our own cities will soon become our reality. Looking at these innovative projects, I realize how powerful architecture is to this society. Architecture is now improving the way people live by incorporating vital needs of the people in design, like urban farming. As global population grows, water becomes more scarce, and demand of food rises in future, the need for these kind of innovative design will become more evident, and the role of architecture will become more and more crucial in global needs.