[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?
Hi!
Go here for people that are actually converting swimming pools (in Australia, even) into aquaponics (fish + vegetables) systems:
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/
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?
Didn’t Cheech and Chong cultivate a backyard swimming pool in one of the films?
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!
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!