Bioprinting in the Kitchen of the Future

Bioprinting is already used in experimental medical applications, but it could probably also be employed in the meat-industry. Cultivator, by German Interaction Design students Sarah Mautsch and Aaron Abentheuer, is a speculative design project on how this technology could find its way into the kitchen of the future.

Tacking into account the possible development of meat-consumption, they imagined a product that could fit into the small middle-class kitchen. The prototype of Cultivator therefore is equipped with a solar-panel that is combined with the user-interface to be self-sufficient and energy-wise. It can however fall back to the house’s energy-supply.

As the individual servings of meat will tend to get smaller, the device itself could decide what’s the most efficient way to print the meat to satisfy the user’s demands. As a consequence, arbitrary shapes will evolve out of this printer, that are purely derived from technical necessity and detached from traditional shapes of parts of animals.

Cultivator will try to meet your personal health’s demands as much as possible, while still preserving the distinct character and flavor of the meat you selected.

The prototype is open-source and can be downloaded and experienced on GitHub.