Team: Yuichiro Takeuchi
We are developing a technique to 3D print freeform hydroponic "gardens", i.e., 3D volumes with various types of plants growing on their surfaces. The volumes are printed using specialized polymer in fine 3D mesh structures, effectively creating soil substitutes out of plastic. The technology is scalable, and can theoretically be used to print large-scale vertical gardens, rooftop farms, pocket parks, etc. In the future, we believe the technology can be extended to print complex ecosystems supporting diverse flora and fauna ("printable nature").
Publications:
- Takeuchi, Y. 3D Printable Hydroponics: A Digital Fabrication Pipeline for Soilless Plant Cultivation. IEEE Access, Volume 7. pp.35863-35873. 2019. Download (PDF, 6.7MB)
- Takeuchi, Y. Printable Hydroponic Gardens: Initial Explorations and Considerations. In Ext. Abst. (alt.chi) of the 34th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016). pp.449-458.