Project Information
Name of the project: Microcosmic Aquaculture
Architects: The Bittertang Farm
Year (project): 2009
Exhibition: Architectural League of New York, Young Architects Prize, 2010
We imagine a future where the vast and deep expanses of the ocean will teem with
overabundant floating gelatinous reefs. Human’s will be nourished physically and aesthetically be
encouraging new floating worlds of reefs that sustain large quantities of harvestable wild and
captive fish. Farming in this project is not viewed as a monoculture but the creation of a new
ecology where wild and captive wildlife are ’raised’ and their aesthetic potential is enjoyed by
future divers and fisherman.
By encouraging the establishment of new ecosystems contemporary farmers as well as the
public can reap sustenance and aesthetic benefits from environmental stewardship. The ocean
is a vast resource that can accommodate more life when the proper conditions are met. These
conditions are minimal and new ecologies can flourish around the simplest substrate. In the
ocean its not a matter of making space for life but by making objects that attract life. By
combining manufactured products with animal and plant material we will help to define a new
aesthetic associated with qualitative benefits that disturbs romantic desires to return to nature
and environmentalism. Our ominous orbs will provide the structure from which this aesthetic will
arise.
