This Is What A Chinese City Looks Like Inside A Fish Tank

The term "Fish Pond City" sparks some curious images in the mind's eye. What would a city full of endless fish ponds look like? Or for the more imaginative, how would an above-ground fish civilization operate? A team of artists/ designers collaborated to give us one interpretation of what such a place would look like with their permanent installation "Fish Pond City Xi'an."

The project was designed by Vienna-based designers Raoul Bukor and Christian Lindle in collaboration with Chinese artist Lu Yang to represent a small-scale model (1:60) of urban development in the city Xi'an. Buildings are represented by aquariums while green spaces are signified via living material. The piece's description clarifies the urban development metaphor:

This district lies within the densely populated city of Xi’an, about 5 kilometers east of the city center. Spatial patterns are given by investors, by architects, by housing demands…

This future urban district contains large numbers of multi-storey buildings and a long stretch of urban parkland.

This so called “green stripe” will play a fundamental role in the future urban grid and does so equivalently in the installation by housing a massive biological filter system.

The installation contains 56 glass boxes, 1,500 goldfish, 29 multicolored LEDs, and almost 10,000 liters of water. It is the type of art piece that one could lose a day staring at, while probably fantasizing about the potential happenings that would go on in a fictional fish-opolis.

Below is a vide of the installation. Just don't tap on the glass.

See more at Lindle and Burkor's website, here.