The house of 2099 may have virtual wallpaper, no baths or showers and a brain. Sound far fetched? No more far fetched than washer driers, split screen surround sound TV and the Internet would have seemed to the Irish person struggling with scrubbing boards and gaslight a century ago. Edel Morgan asks four design students to look into the future and conjure up their vision of the home of 2099.

Norman Stephenson, Industrial design student

By 2099, Europe could be either one huge super state with everyone working together for the good of man to manage limited resources or it could be a case of everyone for themselves - all countries scrambling to grab the few resources left. With people living longer due to improved nutrition and healthcare, new solutions to overcrowding will have to be explored and ultimately found. Underwater housing or depopulation to other planets are just two options. Houses could also become part of the landscape with houses built into a cliff face or caves for instance.

The house will have a central brain which will operate a number of intelligent systems within the house. As you approach your house, a personal recognition security system will read your hand or eye pattern before you gain entrance. Sensors monitor the temperature of your skin and takes a read-out of your brain pattern. If you've had a hard day, the lighting intensity will be adjusted accordingly - slowly bringing up the light and playing music to suit your mood.

Edible packaging would help cut down on waste, or there could be virtual packaging, an invisible form of packaging that will hold food in an artificial atmosphere, keeping it fresh. As in the 20th century, nostalgia will play its part in bringing some people back to the old way of doing things - a kind of reaction against technology if you like. While it will be possible to cook food at the press of a button, some will prefer to savour the joy and sensuality of cooking food themselves.

The cyberpet could be vintage nostalgia by 2099, just as we keep clothes and from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Lack of space will mean that people will no longer have gardens, but it's possible there will be Scandinavian garden park-type schemes where people will be allotted a plot of land to grow vegetables. Taking showers or baths will be against the law as water becomes increasingly scarce, but washing cloths will have special cleaning properties or microbes that kill germs.

No matter how much technology advances, Maslow's Theory of Human Needs will always apply - food and shelter will always be necessary to satisfy our physiological needs.

Norman Stephenson, from Wexford, is a fourth-year student at the National College of Art and Design, Thomas Street, Dublin.

Debbie Kearney, Furniture design and manufacture student

With the dropping of EU barriers and the lure of the Celtic Tiger there could be a huge influx of people from other countries making it harder to find adequate land for houses. Windows will be made of a material that will allow the maximum amount of light into the home during the day but will be electronically tinted to allow for privacy. An interior design computer in the home will allow you change decor at the flick of a switch.

Chairs will be moulded to the individual's form and controlled by means of sensors. Simplicity of form will be the key and everything will be designed with comfort in mind. TV will change drastically and an image will be projected on to a wall or screen. Entertainment will become a more cerebral, interactive experience where you can choose your own pathway through a film and recycle a story line, changing the plot and the ending if you wish.

Debbie Kearney, from Galway, is a second-year student at Letterfrack Furniture College, Co Galway.

Catherine O'Hare, Architecture student

The house of 2099 won't be viewed so much as a home more as a flexible space. The "family unit" as we know it will be obsolete, as will the concept of the standard three or four-bed semidetached house. Divorce will mean that most people will have several families and step-families - so houses will be open-plan spaces where screens can be added and taken away as people pass through.

Houses will be less cluttered but not because people set out to be minimalist but because they won't have as many possessions. Computers will be a standard part of every house and will replace the need for things like bulky encyclopaedias. Computer discs will take up a minuscule amount of space and cooking will be done by food machines at the press of a button so there won't be need for cups, a fridge or a kitchen. Sonar cleansing will replace the washing machine and baths will only be seen in museums as they lose meaning in the lives of people in a hurry.

There will be no radiators, chimneys, light fittings or letter boxes. Post will become a memory of a by-gone age as speedier and more paper-friendly emails replace them. Heating will be under floor and fireplaces will be mere showpieces. Light fittings will be little more than ornaments as the radiant ceiling adjusts itself like the sky to the required intensity by means of a touch sensitive pad.

People will be taller by 2099, so rooms and doors will also be getting bigger. We'll be stuck with square and rectangular shaped buildings for the most part because of the way the streets are planned. But individual houses, particularly those outside the city, will take on a lot of different shapes and structure. They will be factory-made, prefabricated structures, which will be more flexible in the way they are put together. For example you'd be able to change the roof to whatever shape you want by using a curved roof truss instead of a straight one.

Of course, things could go the other way. Throughout history you usually find a period of civilisation is followed by a return to a middle ages type breakdown in society. There are those already advocating a return to a Puritan way of living and a lot of sci-fi literature, such as that of Isaac Asimov, mixes the medieval with the more advanced and technological. If the technological backlash doesn't happen by 2099, we could be holidaying on the moon or at least taking space voyages. But no matter how advanced things get, one thing will never change - cooking will remain for some people an art. Going out for a meal may become a form of status symbol.

Catherine O'Hare, from Dublin, is a fourth-year degree student at DIT, Bolton Street, Dublin.

Robert Whiteside, Furniture design and manufacture

Furniture as we know it might be obsolete in 100 years. Like Jennifer Aniston in the L'Oreal ad on TV, we could be suspended by an invisible force. Chairs and tables could become things of the past as we are suspended, which will mean less pressure on the body and less danger of it malforming as we age. If furniture remains an important part of the home, manufacturers could be scientists rather than craftsmen, as science begins to play a more important role in the comfortable support of the human body. Timber will become a prized material, so plastics may take its place, or metals and other materials not yet discovered. A fine balance will be reached between the visual aesthetic of a piece of furniture and the practical, ergonomic element. Furniture will be adjustable to the individual. Fossil fuels will also be in danger and new bacterias may develop, making the kitchen and bathroom sterile, clinical places. Houses could begin to act as a protection from the environment, perhaps sealed off to protect from depleted oxygen levels outside. Mini-underground cities are a possibility.

Robert Whiteside, from west Cork, is a second-year student at Letterfrack Furniture College, Galway.