In the future, a self-sufficient “Aquaponic home” could allow your family to grow veggies and fish without waste or pollution.

The Biodesign Competition gives students a chance to go wild with ideas for sustainable living in the future. Students of design and architecture can share their best creative concepts and combine technology with eco-friendly living.

Finalist Mihai Chiriac from the UK released a design with his team for 3D printed “Aquaponic Future Housing.”

What makes it so special? Chiriac’s concept uses 3D-printed biodegradable vegetable-based bioplastic to construct a 3-story house. The Aquaponic home is a self-sustaining ecosystem that produces its own food without creating waste.

“The building uses novel structures and fabrication, proposing lightweight bend-active aquaponic towers, which sustain growing crops and fishing,” the designers explained.

Fish & Crops in a 3D Printed Aquaponic Home

So how does it work? The two main ideas within the 3D printed eco-friendly structure are aquaculture and hydroponics.

That means that the aquaculture system raises fish and uses their organic waste to feed the plants. These plants grow in water instead of soil in a system known as hydroponics.

The reason it works so well is because the people can live off the fish or plants the ecosystem produces. It’s low maintenance since the plants act as a natural water filter, keeping the environment clean.

How Does This Help Our Future?

These 3D printed hydroponic homes can be placed anywhere. Even in environments that have been destroyed by pollutants. These urban brownfield sites can be regenerated over time and people can live on them without creating waste.

What’s more, this form of self-sustaining housing generates more food than other forms of agriculture.

The designers say, “…it enables a cradle-to-cradle lifestyle where fresh organic food and construction materials are produced in-house by the inhabitants.”

To read more, please see the finalist description here.