The Tidal Exchange

Located on Albert Island in the Royal Docks, a site surrounded by water, the project proposes a fish market combined with a boat yard dedicated to local fishermen. Conceived as a complement to the Billingsgate Market, it rethinks the relationship between trade, infrastructure, and the Thames by reconnecting the fishing industry directly to the water rather than to road-based logistics.

The building operates entirely according to tidal cycles. The fish market functions at low tide and rising tide, while the boat yard accessible by land at all times also opens to the river at rising and high tides. Access and activity are therefore dictated by nature rather than by human schedules.

As the water rises beyond six metres, the market floor is gradually submerged. The organic residue left behind becomes a natural lure, drawing fish from the Thames into the structure itself. From the level above, visitors are invited to fish directly from the building, an ecological cycle quietly embedded within the architecture itself.

As the tide reclaims the ground, the building shifts register: from place of trade to place of leisure and public occupation. The architecture responds continuously, opening, closing, flooding, and transforming with each tidal movement.

Rooted in the study of water reflection and wind movement, the project translates distortion, fluctuation, and motion into spatial experience. Forms undulate, surfaces react, and programmes adapt, blurring the boundary between natural forces and constructed space. Rather than resisting its environment, the architecture works in symbiosis with it.