Infrastructural Ecologies: Converting the Abandoned Fisher Flourmill on Seattle's Harbor Island into an Aquaponic Food Production and Education Facility.

Abstract

This thesis explores ways in which highly specialized, yet technologically obsolete, buildings may be reprogrammed with contemporary uses by finding overlap between two-differing process' with coincident material flows and building forms. As the case-in-point, I propose converting the abandoned Fisher Flourmill, on Seattle's Harbor Island, into an aquaponic food-production and education facility with three primary goals: 1. To retain Seattle's industrial heritage by re-using and recontextualizing its existing infrastructure. 2. To produce food locally, thereby reducing the disconnect between food-producer and consumer. 3. To reframe the interaction between the general public and the means-of production that sustain us, since traditionally industrial processes have been removed from public view.