Kind Designs Talks Coastal Sustainability With 3D Printed Living Seawalls

As the pace of climate change accelerates and sea levels rise, coastal communities across the globe are facing an unparalleled danger. Adding to this dilemma is the distressing decline of coral reefs. While previous efforts have addressed these issues separately, Miami-based tech company Kind Designs has pioneered a groundbreaking approach by utilizing 3D printing to address both challenges at once. By developing 3D printed seawalls, the company has emerged as a frontrunner in coastal sustainability, offering a solution that has the potential to fundamentally transform how we protect our coastlines. To learn more about the company’s efforts and plans in this field, we spoke with the CEO and founder of Kind Designs, Anya Freeman.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and Kind Designs?

Hello, my name is Anya Freeman, and I am the founder of Kind Designs. We’re a Miami-based team of ocean enthusiasts aiming to disrupt the coastal construction industry and fortify coastal cities by transforming toxic seawalls into artificial reefs through 3D printing technology.

Anya Freeman (center) and members of the Kind Designs team.

3DN: What inspired the concept of Living Seawalls, and how do they differ from traditional concrete seawalls in terms of environmental impact and effectiveness?

I moved to Miami in 2009 to go to law school. After graduating, I worked as an attorney and lived in a house in Miami Beach with my friends. I started noticing the radical increase in flooding and storm surges year after year in my community due to rising sea levels. It was common for my friends and I to come home and walk through knee-deep water just to get to the front door of our house. It was frustrating that the narrative surrounding this problem was only doom and gloom, and that there was absolutely no conversation around applying technology to find a solution.