When in March 2023 the Fishing Architecture team went to Iceland’s Westfjords for a workshop, the purpose was to experiment with research methodologies to support the innovative interdisciplinary methods the project seeks to put into practice. Beyond the storm and its remote location, Ísafjörður was an example to address the entanglements between marine ecosystems and terrestrial landscapes. Once a protected trading post, during the twentieth century it grew into a significant urban centre, largely through the expansion of cod (Gadus morhua) fisheries.

The paper presents the workshop outcomes, combining interdisciplinary approaches from historical mapping to cod migration reconstructions, aiming to trace the connections between fish populations, fishing activities, and urban growth. The findings reveal overlapping timelines where ecological cycles and social developments converge. Visual representation played a central role in articulating these relationships, offering tools to translate processes from the marine realm into the built environment.

Its publication through Open Research Europe was a testing ground for interdisciplinary peer-review challenges, with the open peer-review process offering readers a transparent insight into ongoing scientific debates. The full article is available in open access via https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20177.3.