The Future of Sustainable Architecture: Mushrooms?
Could houses be built with mushrooms?
The construction industry is currently developing and incorporating a sustainable and cost effective building material made from mushrooms. Mycelium is the root system of a fungal organism made of hyphae that looks like cobwebs. When hardened, it becomes a water and fire resistant material that can be molded into shapes such as bricks, lampshades, furniture, boxes, vegan leather, vegan meats, beauty products, and more. Ikea has already started using mycelium molds as packaging.
Structures have been made out of mycelium already, but most are limited to art installations because of the amount of weight it can bear. Although mycelium is stronger than concrete relative to weight, it still has significantly less compressive strength. Mycelium also breaks down over time, usually around 20 years in good conditions. Despite this, the benefits of mycelium are immense. It is 100% biodegradable fungi that can break down waste, filter out contaminants in water, convert heavy metals into safer compounds, eliminate non-degradable materials (i.e. plastic, nuclear waste, unrefined oil), and more. Mycelium also has the potential to reduce construction waste. Mycelium molded objects can be made from construction waste like saw dust, so it can remove construction waste by turning it into a usable material. Furthermore, mycelium is a carbon negative material. Materials like mycelium and hempcrete that sequester carbon seem to be necessary to save the planet.
Mogu, an Italian design company hopes to shift their mycelium acoustic panels and composite floor tiles to entire buildings. Designers and innovators have mostly focused on dead and dried mycelium, but in a recent paper. Phil Ayres (Copenhagen-based architect) laid out a new vision of architecture from living fungi. His idea of mushroom-machine hybrids that can construct sustainable, self-repairing buildings is radical. In a time of space travel, these structures could potentially exist on and off Earth. Redhouse Studio in Cleveland is working with NASA to design self-growing structures that can be shipped to Mars.
With all these new possibilities, there are still major unknowns. Mycelium is still not durable enough to sustain a large house and degrade quickly. It is also a fairly new material, so innovators will likely take years to fully utilize mycelium. Nevertheless, in a time where the demand for sustainable products is overwhelmingly high, mycelium seems like a capable material.