Architectural performance can be understood as the capacity of architecture to catalyse multi-scalar interaction processes between actors and environment. This studio examined markets as performative pieces of infrastructure capable of orchestrating interactions between multiple actors.
The Fish Market, located along Blackwattle Bay’s waterfront, is a site of contradictions. While it is often perceived as a local market with its own fishing fleet, it claims to be the biggest fish market in the southern hemisphere and operates within a global trading network. While it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, it sits in a degraded public space with limited accessibility.
Students were expected to interrogate the traditional definitions of a fish market’s architectural typology. Each proposal defined a multi-scalar design strategy that articulated a spatial, organisational and conceptual understanding of the Sydney Fish Market both locally and globally.