{"id":1580,"date":"2021-01-18T09:11:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T09:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1580"},"modified":"2021-01-18T09:11:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T09:11:03","slug":"why-future-homes-could-be-made-of-living-fungus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1580\/why-future-homes-could-be-made-of-living-fungus\/","title":{"rendered":"Why future homes could be made of living fungus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the summer of<\/span><\/span>\u00a02014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. It looked like someone had started building an igloo and then got carried away, so that the ice-white bricks rose into\u00a0<\/span><\/span>huge towers<\/span><\/span><\/a>. It was a\u00a0<\/span><\/span>captivating sight, but\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the truly impressive thing about this building was not so much its looks but the fact that it had been grown.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The installation, called Hy-Fi, was designed and created by\u00a0<\/span>The Living<\/span><\/a>, an architectural design studio in New York. Each of the 10,000 bricks had been made by packing agricultural waste and\u00a0<\/span>mycelium, the fungus that makes mushrooms,\u00a0<\/span>into a mould and letting them grow into a solid mass.<\/span><\/p>\n

This mushroom monument gave architectural researcher Phil Ayres an idea.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>It was impressive,<\/span>\u2019<\/span>said<\/span>Ayres, who is based at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture in Copenhagen<\/span>, Denmark<\/span>. But this project and others like it were using fungus as a component in buildings\u00a0<\/span>such as bricks\u00a0<\/span>without necessarily thinking about what new types of building we could make from fungi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why he and three colleagues have begun the\u00a0<\/span>FUNGAR<\/span><\/a>project \u2013 to explore what kinds of new buildings we might construct out of mushrooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mushrooms might sound\u00a0<\/span>like\u00a0<\/span>an outlandish building material. But there is certainly good reason to drastically rethink construction. Buildings\u00a0<\/span>and construction\u00a0<\/span>are responsible for\u00a0<\/span>39% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and a whopping 2<\/span>1<\/span>% of those emissions come just from the making of steel and concrete. Construction also uses vast amounts of natural resources. Take sand, one of the principal ingredients in concrete. It takes a special sort, with just the right roughness, to make concrete. These days\u00a0<\/span>it is a lucrative commodity and controlled in some parts of the world by\u00a0<\/span>sand mafias<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and stolen by\u00a0<\/span>the boatload from islands<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such\u00a0<\/span>troubles are set to worsen over the next decades as the world\u2019s population grows faster and gets wealthier. We need a lot more homes and if you do the maths, the amount we need to build is staggering.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>It\u2019s like building a Manhattan every month for the next 40 years,<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0said Ayres<\/span>, borrowing a line from\u00a0<\/span>Bill Gates<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fungi\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>bricks<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Can fungi really help? Absolutely, says mycologist Professor\u00a0<\/span>Han\u00a0<\/span>Wosten<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Fungi are not consumers of CO2 like plants are. They need to digest food and so produce carbon dioxide, like animals do. However, the organic waste streams (such as straw or other low value agricultural waste) that the fungi digest would be degraded to CO2 anyway, either by composting or burning. Plus,\u00a0<\/span>fungi<\/span>\u00a0bricks permanently fix some of that waste inside them and so act as a store of carbon. All this makes fungi buildings a climate win \u2013 and certainly miles better than using concrete, steel and bricks.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The mycelium composite can be grown over a woven scaffold for a period of 7-10 days, eventually encasing the structure. Image credit – FUNGAR\/CITA, 2019-2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The F<\/span>UNGAR<\/span>\u00a0project began in late 2019 and so\u00a0<\/span>far<\/span>\u00a0Prof<\/span>.<\/span>Wosten<\/span>\u00a0has been experimenting with how to make building materials. At Prof<\/span>.<\/span>Wosten\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0lab in Utrecht, the team have been combining mycelium, the \u2018roots\u2019 of fungi, with agricultural waste such as straw. Then they allow the fungi to grow for about two weeks, until the fungus has colonised the straw. This binds the straw together, producing a white-<\/span>ish<\/span>\u00a0foam-like material. Then they heat-treat it to kill the organism. They can also process it, for example by applying coatings or by squashing it.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>If we press it we can get a material like hardboard,<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0said\u00a0<\/span>P<\/span>rof<\/span>.<\/span>Wosten<\/span>. By varying the type of fungi and agricultural waste, the growth conditions and the post-processing, Prof<\/span>.<\/span>Wosten<\/span>\u00a0says they are getting all sorts of candidate building materials with different mechanical properties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018<\/span>It\u2019s very early days to start saying your house will be made entirely of fungus,<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0said Ayres. But parts of it already can be.\u00a0<\/span>Mogu<\/span>, a company based near Milan in Italy, already produces and sells\u00a0<\/span>sound-dampening\u00a0<\/span>velvet-textured\u00a0<\/span>wall tiles<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>floor tiles<\/span><\/a>\u00a0based on mycelium foam. The company\u2019s chief technology officer\u00a0<\/span>Antoni\u00a0<\/span>Gandia<\/span>\u00a0is another<\/span>\u00a0FUNGAR<\/span>\u00a0project partner. He said that\u00a0<\/span>Mogu<\/span>\u00a0is also developing<\/span>\u00a0mycelium<\/span>-based<\/span>\u00a0insulation material<\/span>\u00a0for buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ayres is hoping that the F<\/span>UNGAR<\/span>\u00a0project will go way beyond just using fungi-based products as components in existing building designs. He wants to think about what entirely new kinds of building might be made from fungi. Foremost in his mind is building with living fungus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s very early days to start saying your house will be made entirely of fungus.\u2019<\/p>\n

-Phil Ayres, Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Living fungus<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two principal advantages to this. First, living fungus might behave as a self-healing material, simply re-growing if it becomes damaged. Second, mycelium networks are capable of information processing. Electrical signals run through them and change over time in a manner almost akin to a brain.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>We\u2019ve discovered that fungal materials respond to tactile stimulation and illumination by changing their patterns of electrical activity,<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0said Prof<\/span>.<\/span>Andrew\u00a0<\/span>Adamat<\/span>z<\/span>ky<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK,\u00a0<\/span>who is<\/span>coordin<\/span>ati<\/span>ng the project with<\/span>Ayres<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea is that perhaps the very structure of a mushroom building might sense and respond to its environment independently.<\/span>\u00a0It might for instance sense<\/span>\u00a0when<\/span>CO2 levels from the mycelium are building up and open the windows to release the gas<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>according to<\/span>Gandia<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building with living mycelium<\/span>\u00a0will be a\u00a0<\/span>big\u00a0<\/span>challenge. This is because the longer\u00a0<\/span>it\u00a0<\/span>grows, the more of the substrate material\u00a0<\/span>\u2013\u00a0<\/span>the straw, or whatever<\/span>\u00a0waste \u2013<\/span>it\u00a0<\/span>decompose<\/span>s.<\/span>\u00a0Since the straw gives the materials their structural integrity, allowing the fungi to grow for too long isn\u2019t desirable. There may be ways around this though. Depriving the fungi of water puts it into a dormant state: alive but not growing. And\u00a0<\/span>so<\/span>\u00a0one of Ayres<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0ideas<\/span>\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0to construct walls with two layers of dead fungus enclosing a layer of living fungus inside. This set up would shut out water from the inner layer, keeping the fungus there dormant.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mycolite panels are made by pouring the composite into a mould. Image credit – FUNGAR\/CITA, 2019-2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

One of the few other people who have explored working with fungi\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>construction is\u00a0<\/span>Jonathan\u00a0<\/span>Dessi<\/span>\u00a0Olive<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at Kansas State University in the US. He sa<\/span>ys\u00a0<\/span>that working with living mycelium is a very interesting\u00a0<\/span>new idea\u00a0<\/span>because it offers the possibility of the building being able to heal itself. But for him the real attraction of what he calls\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>myco-materials<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0is that they \u2018give us a way of reshaping how we think about the permanence of architecture<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018What if some \u2013 not all \u2013 of our buildings were meant to only last a couple\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>years and could thereafter be recycled into shelter, food, or energy?\u2019<\/span>\u00a0he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next major goal for the F<\/span>UNGAR<\/span>\u00a0project is to build a small, freestanding building. They plan to pull that off within a year and then spend time monitoring it as it ages. It is crucial, sa<\/span>ys<\/span>\u00a0Ayres, to be able to monitor the living structure and see how it changes. It isn\u2019t yet clear exactly what sorts of structures might end up being made from\u00a0<\/span>fungi<\/span>, but they will probably start small.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>I wouldn\u2019t be crossing a bridge made of\u00a0<\/span>fungi<\/span>, would you?<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0joked Prof<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Wosten<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You might be wondering what happened to Hy-Fi, that igloo-like structure in New York. The answer points to one of the most beautiful things about mycelium buildings. No wrecking ball or slow decay for them. It was taken down and composted.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The research in this article was funded by the EU.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published on Horizon magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0the summer of\u00a02014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. It looked like someone had started building an igloo and then got carried away, so that the ice-white bricks rose into\u00a0huge towers. It was a\u00a0captivating sight, but\u00a0the truly impressive thing about this building … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":1583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[266,119,376],"class_list":["post-1580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-energy-environment","tag-construction","tag-industry","tag-mushroom"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy future homes could be made of living fungus - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1580\/why-future-homes-could-be-made-of-living-fungus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why future homes could be made of living fungus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In\u00a0the summer of\u00a02014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. 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