Romy Kaiser, Ahmet Topcu

A team from the Hub for Biotechnology and the Built Environment has created a mycelium material prototype to question common consumption processes. The project highlights the current environmental crisis to redefine common material consumption and production processes. It considers the idea of using growth as a construction method for the objects around us, by focusing on a prototype model freestanding structure.

The Myco-Knit CompoSITe prototype explores artistically a novel fabrication technique of building with digital tools and biology by using a 3D knitted, reinforcing fibre-based formwork for growing a chair with mycelium, the root network of fungi. Mycelium growth binds the organic filling material together, resulting in a stiff self-supporting object able to carry light loads when dried.

This novel approach widens the possibilities of creating further complex objects, furniture and architectural elements of the future with mycelium-based materials.

This project was longlisted in the sustainable design category of Dezeen Awards 2022.