Quarry Design Competition

Worcestershire County Council sponsored a landscape design competition in 2016 to encourage innovative proposals for how sand and gravel pits could be restored and subsequently used.

Through our proposal we wanted to bring attention to the impending food crisis that faces the global community, help normalise alternative sources of food such as insects and create environmentally and economically sustainable farming.

Our design takes insects as the base input to create a highly efficient productive cyclical ecosystem where insects, fish and salad crops are grown within the disused quarries of Worcestershire. The cycle works with the production of insect both as a stand alone food source but additionally to feed the aquaponic system.

The aquaponic system produces fish within the ponds.  The waste water from the ponds is then pumped to a hydroponic vertical growing system which produces the salad crops.  The  waste water from the fish contains nutrients needed to grow the salad crops, and in turn filters the water which is returned clean to the fish tanks creating a highly efficient system.  The fish and salad can be cropped and marketed with a % of salad crop used to feed insects and the waste is fed into a biodigester, transforming it into energy that can be fed back into the system.

We also potentially envisaged the facility as a worldwide centre of excellence, providing training for people across the globe wishing to explore the incredible opportunity that could be offered by Future Foods.