Human-Nature-Centred Design

A Domestic Ecosystem

YEAR: 2020 | CATEGORIES: Product Design // Sustainable Dsign 

In a typical aquaponic farming system, we see the very metabolism flow among plants, bacterias, and fish. It consists of a flow of nutrition. Bacterias convert the waste produced by fish into nutrition , which becomes fertilizer for plants. Vice versa, plants and their fruits can then be regarded as food for fish.

Flow is a small-scale domestic ecosystem, inspired by an aquaponic system, that allows humans to interact with plants and fish.

The product is designed for interior environments and has a modular character, enabling a versatile combination of the units that comprise it according to the characteristics of the environment.

It is made up of a fish tank, a container for vegetation or aromatic herbs and a biofilter, which allows the waste generated by the fish to be transformed into nutritional energy for the plants. Humans, plants, and fish are all considered users in this system, providing benefits to each other.

Emanating from a vision based on the concept of Human-Nature-Centred Design, Flow aims to generate mutual benefits for all living beings in the system, in terms of aesthetic, health, and productivity aspects. For adapting different kinds of using scenarios and scale of space, a modular system with individual units is proposed.

According to the need, the structure can be expanded from a simple aquaponics combination to a more complex network. A design product endeavouring to explore the mutual relationship between human and nature.