Project description
A marine look at fishing architecture
The shores of the North Atlantic house diverse architectural cultures and its waters are home to a wealth of fish species. The industrialisation of fisheries in the early 19th century and the globalisation of the industry at the end of the 20th century impacted the area’s fishing architecture. The ERC-funded FISH-A project will assess the ecological impact of fishing constructions and the natural resources they depend upon. Specifically, it will advance our understanding of the ecological impact of human activity. The project will focus on marine ecosystems, fishing technology, food processing, politics, and consumption habits in order to offer a new perspective on construction, in which fishing landscapes bring together land and sea.
Objective
To what extent can fish produce architecture? This project sets out to trace a socioecological history of North Atlantic architecture in relation to fisheries, elucidating the relationships between marine environments and terrestrial landscapes and assessing the ecological impact of fishing constructions and the natural resources they depend upon.
Fishing Architecture covers a broad spectrum in terms of both geography and time, a choice that was made to avoid deterministic analysis and engage with transnational phenomena. Thus, the focus is on the North Atlantic—its shores housing diverse architectural cultures and its waters home to a wealth of fish species—and follows a time frame that runs from the industrialization of fisheries in the early 19th century to the full globalization of the industry at the end of the 20th.
The extant scholarship on marine ecology, fisheries, and fishing communities includes extensive research on fish populations, navigation systems, technology, bioeconomics, architecture, and cultural practices. Yet, comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the field is hindered by its own specialization. Facing the impending challenges of the environmental predicament, this project will use the material history of architecture as a powerful tool for advancing interdisciplinary research and, along with it, our understanding of the ecological impacts of human activity.
The assessment will be organized along five analytical axes: (1) marine ecosystems; (2) fishing technology; (3) food processing; (4) politics; and (5) consumption habits, effectively avoiding the conventional architectural approach to understanding the built environment. This strategy allows us to identify critical knowledge gaps to be worked on and, most significantly, fosters a fresh perspective on construction in which fishing landscapes and buildings are understood as material traces of dynamic socioecological relationships and as part of the continuum between land and sea.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedHost institution
4099-002 Porto
Portugal