J I M
  I AN
 MACMILLAN

Polruan, UK
Masterplan, Fish Market
Student
2015

Site:
Cornwall bears the Janus faced features of being both: one of the most impoverished places in Europe and a tourist hotspot for the British middle-class. No better place displays these two contrasting characteristics than the two towns Fowey and Polruan. The summer swarms of tourists flood the streets of Fowey each year whilst across the estuary, Polruan struggles to make its way as local industries decline.

Brazen Island is a redundant dockyard caught between these two communities. Surrounded by torrents of water and cliffs the limited access to the site is only possible by boat.

Brief:
Design a space that supports one of the local industries failing in Polruan.

Approach:
Focusing on the fishing industry a floating hatchery and fish market was formed to locally sustain marine populations and thus the fisherman in the surrounding area.

Rather than focusing on one industry multiple other programs were proposed for the area. Noticing the interdependency of local businesses in the area; a masterplan of Brazen Island focused on symbiotic communities and micro-movements.

Before designing spaces, systems were organised that interdependently brought the community together. These systems were flexible and able to respond through feedback loops if the community were to grow. These relationships also addressed global issues such as climate change and water pollution; addressing them at a localised scale to produce visible results. 

Spaces were then built up around these systems. Working from sea to shore, to soil; the design’s main focus was on sustaining local mariculture and future-proofing the Cornish fishing industry. This was achieved with a floating fishery linked directly to a market and docks in the area.

The sea was an integral part of both the site and the program. This led to spaces being design around two scales of time; both the sun and the moon; time and the tides.