"Mushrooms as
a Domestic Medium"
Mycelium is the vegetative structure of fungi. Think of mycelium as the root system while the mushrooms are the fruits [6]. However, we can also think of mycelium as a promising biodegradable material for fabrication.
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Exploration of biodegradable fabrication materials has been the focus of many disciplines such as fashion, architecture, art, and product design [45]. In the age of plastic and over-consumption, we’ve found our Earth in crisis, and we’ll be facing worrying consequences if we don’t make changes soon. The world of fabrication has addressed this crisis through interesting solutions—including mushrooms.
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Mycelium is a low-cost/easy to source material, biobased and biodegradable, and its affordances are plentiful. Mycelium can grow into the shape of whatever container it’s in, making it extremely dynamic in scale and shape. When baked, mycelium can take different forms, from sturdy structures like bricks [33], to flexible material like leather [12]. Mycelium is waterproof [11], lightweight [47], and with fire-retardant [18] properties.
Yet, most people haven’t heard of this extraordinary material, and so its uses haven’t fully reached it’s protentional. Thus, we introduce our project for the 2020 BioDesign Challenge: MyCoDomicilia. Our project explores mycelium-based fabrication of common household, or domestic, artifacts. To maximize our reach and accessibility to the community, we collected our explorations in a book, as well as presented them on social media [26][27]. Our recipes are affordable, and easy to follow so that anyone feels empowered to remake these creations.
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However, in developing these recipes, it wasn’t a BioDesign Challenge for nothing. During the competition, our University’s campus had been shut down due to the COVID pandemic. That left our team estranged from each other, and some unable to complete their projects. Yet, this obstacle had spawned an additional intriguing section of our book—speculations. Here we speculated based on thorough research on feasible recipes that we could’ve been able to do had it not been for the pandemic. In this sense, we invite people to speculate with us and further accessibility by eliciting more imagination in the possibilities of mycelium.
All in all, MyCoDomicilia embodies the idea that we can all help the Earth by embracing eco-friendly making—all while having fun in the comfort of our homes. Our goal is to inspire everyone, regardless of their socio-political status, economic background, creed, and even bio experience, to embrace eco-friendly changes in their lives.
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What will you make out of mycelium?