From Spores to Structures: Designing with Mushrooms
So, when researching mycelium for today’s architecture blog, I found a few terms slightly perplexing, so before we get into the juicy stuff, we’ll clarify the terms used in the blog.
Mycelium is the main stem and roots of a fungus, a winding network of thin strings called hyphae, growing beneath the ground inside of a substrate such as wood, soil or compost. In the context of a tree, the roots would be the equivalent of the mycelium, the tree trunk would be the equivalent of a fungus and the fruit from a tree would be a mushroom. (Although, note: not every fungus necessarily sprouts mushrooms.)
Mycelium is a very special material, with properties and characteristics solely unique. Anne Casselman in Scientific American (2007) states: “Discovery of this giant Armillaria ostoyae in 1998 heralded a new record holder for the title of the world's largest known organism… Based on its current growth rate, the fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old”
Along with this, in the paper: Effective structural parametric form in architecture using mycelium bio-composites, Gavriilidis, Voutetaki and Giouzepas write that Mycelium “Acts as a natural adhesive, binding the organic material into a solid composite, (which can) be customised for various applications (leading to) wide range of properties, including elasticity, stiffness, porosity and water resistance.” This will therefore make the material suitable for a wide range of uses.
So in what architectural context can mycelium be utilised?
Many!
Firstly we can consider its mind with a case study from researcher, Lynne Boddy from Cardiff University. This is an extract from Merlin Sheldrake's book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, (2021), writing of Boddy.
“A professor of microbial ecology at Cardiff University, has spent decades studying the foraging behaviour of mycelium. Her elegant studies illustrate the problems that mycelial networks are able to solve. Boddy has a no-nonsense manner and talks with quiet amazement about what these fungi are able to do. Their behaviour is a bit like that of slime molds, and she has tested them in similar ways. Boddy encouraged mycelium to work out the most efficient routes between the cities of Great Britain. She arranged soil into the shape of the British landmass and marked cities using blocks of wood colonized with a fungus (the sulphur tuft, or Hypholoma fasciculare). The size of the wood blocks was proportional to the population of the cities they represented. “The fungi grew out from the 'cities' and made the motorway network,” Boddy recounted. You could see the M5, M4, M1, M6. I thought it was quite fun.”
This extract shows us how smart mycelium can be, learning the most efficient route for travelling. An even more fascinating use can be exhibited when studying mycelium in a practical sense.
The physical use of Mycelium as an architectural component is illustraited by Jennifer Hahn (2022) who writes: “London practice Blast Studio has developed a method for 3D printing with living mycelium and used it to form a column that could be harvested for mushrooms before serving as a structural building element.”
Figure 1: Blast Studio 3D prints mycelium column
( https://www.dezeen.com/2022/01/18/blast-studio-tree-column-mycelium-design/ )
Intriguingly the article continues, stating: “The column was constructed by mixing mycelium with a feedstock of waste coffee cups collected from around London and feeding it into a custom-made cold extruder, similar to the kind used for 3D printing with clay. Once printed into shape, the mycelium consumes the pulped paper cups and grows to take over the whole column, producing mushrooms that can be picked off and eaten. The mycelium root structure is then dried to create a load-bearing architectural element with natural insulating and fire-retardant properties.”
Outstanding. There are many revelations and takeaways we can make from these case studies and wider conclusions which can be made from this series of studying contempory sustainable materials. Mycelium certainly has the potential for further research and development. The examples considered here are all very recent projects, promising the potential for future evolution for the material.
To consolidate today’s blog I shall summerise the lessons that I have learnt from this series considering renewable materials.
Sustainable alternatives do exist! They’re often underutilised due to economic incentives.
The construction industry in the United Kingdom is one of the most polluting, Co2 emitting industries.
It’s up to us as Architects to practice sustainably whenever and wherever we can.
The future of construction can look scary as the planet’s issue of pollution increases, but with all the new sustainable materials on the horizon there is potential for a future living alongside a happy planet.
References
Boddy, L., & Ashby, A. (2024a). An Anthology of Fungi. Penguin.
Boddy, L., & Ashby, A. (2024b). Fungi. Penguin.
Casselman, A. (2007, October 4). Strange but True: The Largest Organism on Earth Is a Fungus. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus
Gavriilidis, E. T., Voutetaki, M. E., & Giouzepas, D. G. (2024). Effective Structural Parametric Form in Architecture Using Mycelium Bio-Composites. Architecture, 4(3), 717–729. https://doi.org/10.3390/architecture4030037
Hahn, J. (2022, January 18). Blast Studio 3D prints column from mycelium to make “architecture that could feed people.” Dezeen. https://www.dezeen.com/2022/01/18/blast-studio-tree-column-mycelium-design/
Sheldrake, M. (2021). ENTANGLED LIFE : how fungi make our worlds, change our minds & shape our futures. Random House.
Learn more from videos by Lynne Boddy herself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVPS2DeX6H0&ab_channel=MushroomHour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9yqHR8QX2k&ab_channel=BritishMycologicalSociety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkn1Q7hwfYY&ab_channel=ArboriculturalAssociation
