SUBMITTED BY:

Akshay Ahlawat
B.ARCH VIII SEM

MUSHROOM
AS A BUILDING MATERIAL
1.
For most of us, mushrooms are just a food – something we add to our pasta dishes and risotto. But to
mycologist Philip Ross they’ve become something else completely – a building material that can be used to
manufacture furniture, tableware and even entire buildings. So how is this organic material that literally lies
beneath our feet being harnessed as a robust and durable building material? Through mycelium.

What is mycelium?

Mycelium are the rootlike fibers of fungi which grow beneath the surface of the ground, appearing as a frost-
like growth beneath leaves and bark and growing into a dense network for sprouting mushrooms. Mycelium
holds together large amounts of the planet’s topsoil and has already been used to create powerful antibiotics.
As humans, we actually share more than half of our DNA with fungi, making them a much closer relative than
most would think.
Although not particularly tasty, when dried Mycelium can form an incredibly strong material that is not only
water-resistant, but also fire and mold-resistant. Mycologist Philip Ross discovered that it can be grown and
transformed into building blocks of different shapes that are 100% organic and compostable, with a
consistency that is stronger than concrete when compared pound for pound.
All you need is some organic matter, sawdust waste and a small amount of mushroom, and as the fungus
consumes the sawdust nutrients, its mycelium grows into a solid block of cells which can be confined within
particular-shaped molds. If you place two living fungal bricks alongside one another, they will fuse into an
unbreakable bond within a few hours – a process that can only be halted by drying or curing the material,
effectively killing the mycelium so it doesn’t continue to grow and resulting in a rigid material.
Once dried, this mycelium-built material can then be sanded and painted to resemble other building materials
and used for commercial purposes. Not only is it sturdy, resilient and bulletproof, but it can withstand extreme
temperatures, and when it’s lifetime of use is over, the material can be easily composted.

Where did the idea come from?

Philip Ross has been experimenting with using fungi and mycelium in his art installations for around 20 years,
introducing mushroom tissue into different molds filled with pasteurized sawdust, then leaving the fungus to
digest the material. A mushroom teahouse he built at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf titled Mycotectural Alpha was
his first real piece of what has been dubbed “mycotecture”, made from Reishi mushroom bricks which he later
boiled down into tea for visitors to the gallery to drink. Companies began to approach him about this
environmentally sustainable and surprisingly sturdy building material, and Ross realized that mycelium
building blocks may have a greater use outside the world of art installation.
Ross has since filed for patent on the mycelium material and has started his own company named MycoWorks.
This creative team of engineers, designers and scientists are experimenting with transforming agricultural
waste into durable and robust bio-materials, all using a little help from mushrooms.

What are the challenges of building with mycelium?

Although mycelium has some incredibly attractive properties as a building material, the fact that it is a living,
growing organism means that it also has a mind of its own and attempting to “tame” it is not always
successful. Students at Philadelphia University, Merjan Sisman and Brian McClellan, experimented with
different growing conditions to discover the most pliable material and found that more moisture and less air
resulted in a denser material. Another challenge is ensuring that these often resilient mycelium are dried
sufficiently, because if not, your new building block may just start sprouting new mushrooms! This is one of
the aspects that is deterring designers from using the material and limiting its potential use.
The word “fungus” itself also brings up all sorts of connotations in people’s minds (particularly that of mold),
and whether the world is ready to live in houses built from fungus is yet to be determined. There would need to
be a dramatic shift in the way we think about mycelium building if it was ever going to really take off. New
York City-based company Ecovative Design took a big step in the right direction during their recent
partnership with architect David Benjamin, building the award-winning Hy-Fi Mushroom Tower pavilion at
the Museum of Modern Art PS1. This project, made from 10,000 bricks created using mycelium, had enough
inorganic allure to see people view fungus as a potential substitute for petroleum-based plastics.
But there’s also the logistical challenge of having it accepted by the building industry, which requires
extensive testing, publishing and partnering with educational institutions so that mycelium’s viability can be
showcased to the public.
What is the future of mycelium as a building material?
While Ross has primarily used mycelium blocks as a material in his artistic works, its potential as a
commercial building material has an exciting future. Numerous companies are testing its properties,
particularly as a substitute for styrofoam, as well as its application in the automotive industry and the
manufacture of surfboard.
But perhaps public opinion is the biggest determinant of mycelium’s future as a building material, and Ross
thinks the current state of the world is driving that already. He says people are “feeling the armageddon at the
door…I don’t know if it’s a change, or this is a mutation, but the zeitgeist of nature is happening.” He also
recognizes the expansion of interest in mushroom technology and that his vision is shared by many: “There are
so many people doing stuff with mushrooms right now. It felt lonely for a while being this insulated mushroom
weirdo, so in some ways it’s a huge relief. Right now there’s just a profusion of mushroom stuff that crosses
over between practical technology and the fantastic” .
2.
The future of construction is rotten. The process which has long been known to decompose and recycle
organic matter may soon provide the building blocks to construct our future. The technology is owed to
nonother than the mushroom- or more accurately, fungus.

Fungi have dominated the world's undergrowth for millions of years. Their unique ability to decompose
organic matter enables them to thrive from the life of other organisms. Over decades of research and
development, scientists are narrowing in on technologies which will allow engineers to use fungus as the
main building material in future constructions.

Molding the future with fungus

The visible portion of a fungus, or a mushroom, only represents a minute fraction of the fungus. Beneath
the surface, mushrooms can quickly grow out thread-like roots called mycelium. In recent years,
scientists have developed ways to make use of the web-like formations to create many materials,
including bricks.

Building a 40-Foot tower made of living

mushroom bricks
An architectural team known as The Living designed the world's first mushroom brick tower back in
2014. The team constructed the bricks entirely from fibrous fungi which grew from agricultural waste.
The idea came from Ecovative, a research company who develops alternate uses for mushroom
mycelium.

The Living collaborated with structural engineers to design a building made entirely from mushrooms.
The team spent weeks investigating which techniques worked best to support the most weight.

After rigorous testing, the team decided to take on the task of building a structurally sound 40-foot
tower. The tower consisted of 10,000 bricks and reached 40-feet into the air.
Playvolume00:00/00:00TruvidfullScreen

[Edited Image Source: The Creators Project/Youtube]

The bricks used to construct the building were grown in three separate molds. To make the bricks,
researchers filled molds with organic matter infused with spores. It only takes five days for the
mushrooms to transform the organic matter into a viable brick, making the process cheap and efficient.
Although it is not the same as conventional building materials, the early stages of mycelium material
engineering are proving hopeful.

How does it compare?

As with most emerging technologies, to become a viable alternative to conventional building materials,
the mushroom brick will still require extensive research and development. In essence, the brick is not as
strong and does not have a long useful lifespan in comparison to most building materials.
One of the most commonly used construction materials is concrete. Concrete on its own maintains a
compressive strength of concrete 4000 psi (28 MPa), up to 10,000 psi (70 MPa) depending on the
requirements. Comparatively, the mushroom bricks can only withstand 30 Psi, or 0.2 MPa.

Though it cannot support nearly as much weight, it is also much lighter than concrete. The mushroom
brick weighs an astonishing 43 kg/m³. On the other hand, concrete weighs about 2,400 kg/m³. Despite
the brick's lack of compressive strength, its low density makes it useful in areas which do not need as
much support. The bricks can be used as a both an insulator and as support for interior walls within a
building.

The bricks are also surprisingly durable. Before being used to construct the 40-foot tower, engineers put
the bricks under accelerated aging- a process which stimulates three years of weathering (wind, rain, and
humidity) over a three-week period.

“After three years of accelerated aging the material performed exactly the same as it did originally,” says
David Benjamin, on of the coordinators at The Living.

Other Applications
The applications mushrooms reach far beyond that of just building applications.

Large companies are looking to mycelium as an alternative to conventional packaging materials. The
mushroom packaging is naturally fire resistant and it can be easily molded to any shape. With a curing
time of only five days, the mushroom manufacturing process is proving to be a viable option for other
cooperations to consider.

Of course, the largest driving force behind mushroom materials is its environmental friendliness. It is
carbon neutral and if exposed to living organisms, it can be decomposed.

The technology behind mushroom engineering is still in its infancy. As more carbon taxes are
inevitably imposed with the increasing threat of global warming, humanity will be required to take
alternative measures to save money now, and save the planet later.
SOURCE :

https://buildabroad.org/2016/10/12/mycelium/

https://interestingengineering.com/future-construction-mushroom-buildings