Mycotecture

[satyr]

My link

At an organic farm just outside Monterey, Calif., a super-eco building material is growing in dozens of darkened shipping containers. The farm is named Far West Fungi, and its rusting containers are full of all sorts of mushrooms--shiitake, reishi and pom-pom, to name a few. But Philip Ross, an artist, an inventor and a seriously obsessed amateur mycologist, isn't interested in the fancy caps we like to eat. What he's after are the fungi's thin, white rootlike fibers. Underground, they form a vast network called a mycelium. Far West Fungi's dirt-free hothouses pack in each mycelium so densely that it forms a mass of bright white spongy matter.

Mycelium doesn't taste very good, but once it's dried, it has some remarkable properties. It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It's also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. In December, Ross completed what is believed to be the first structure made entirely of mushroom. (Sorry, the homes in the fictional Smurf village don't count.) The 500 bricks he grew at Far West Fungi were so sturdy that he destroyed many a metal file and saw blade in shaping the 'shrooms into an archway 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 6 ft. wide. Dubbed Mycotectural Alpha, it is currently on display at a gallery in Germany.

Nutty as "mycotecture" sounds, Ross may be onto something bigger than an art project. A promising start-up named Ecovative is building a 10,000-sq.-ft. (about 930 sq m) myco-factory in Green Island, N.Y. "We see this as a whole new material, a woodlike equivalent to plastic," says CEO Eben Bayer. The three-year-old company has been awarded grants from the EPA and the National Science Foundation, as well as the Department of Agriculture--because its mushrooms feast on empty seed husks from rice or cotton. "You can't even feed it to animals," says Bayer of this kind of agricultural waste. "It's basically trash."

After the husks are cooked, sprayed with water and myco-vitamins and seeded with mushroom spores, the mixture is poured into a mold of the desired shape and left to grow in a dark warehouse. A week or two later, the finished product is popped out and the material rendered biologically inert. The company's first product, a green alternative to Styrofoam, is taking on the packaging industry. Called Ecocradle, it is set to be shipped around a yet-to-be-disclosed consumer item this spring.

One of the beauties of Ecocradle is that unlike Styrofoam--which is hard to recycle, let alone biodegrade--this myco-material can easily serve as mulch in your garden. Ecovative's next product, Greensulate, will begin targeting the home-insulation market sometime next year. And according to Bayer's engineering tests, densely packed mycelium is strong enough to be used in place of wooden beams. "It's not so far-out," he says of Ross's art house. So could Bayer see himself growing a mushroom house and living in it? "Well"--he hesitates--"maybe we'd start with a doghouse."

[tripsis]

Awesome article. I really love this sort of thing. I can only hope that it gets past being a novelty and becomes mainstream in time.

[satyr]

Thats the link to the company which produces the ecocradle and insulation.

My link

"EcoCradle™ packaging is literally grown, not manufactured. We use a growing organism to transform agricultural byproducts like cotton seed hulls and buck wheat hulls into a beautiful protective package. Our patented process is inspired by the efficiency of nature, and uses a filamentous fungi (mushroom roots) to bond this packaging into almost any shape..."

[Rabaelthazar]

I love the eco-friendliness of this, but I do wonder what the mycelium thinks of it all.

???

Edited May 26, 2010 by Rabaelthazar

[Mt.B]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

[tripsis]

I reckon reishi would be the best species for this. It has incredibly strong mycelium. Trying to break up a colonised bag is like trying to tear apart of block of leather.

[Whispering Leaves]

On reading this, I was immediately reminded of the cover art of this book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feersum_Endjinn

[ergoamide]

This reminds me of a book series written by the aussie author Kevin J. Anderson, The saga of the seven suns, where people live in a natural fungus city.

[shortly]

I wonder what the load strengths would be like?

Insulating properties?

Would termites like it?

the possibilities could be almost endless

just think, growing doors or furniture in a mould, how cool

[kindness]

Freakin awesome. Even if the whole electronics industry, (silver goods?) used this in place of cardboard and styrofoam that is now used it would be a great thing. How easy to get it into the shapes needed as well. Would probably cut down on even more waste via less damaged goods due to really well fitting packaging.

I want some as insulation in my roof!

[tripsis]

I doubt think termites would eat dried mycelia, as the polymer found in the cells walls of fungi is chitin, as opposed to cellulose in plants, which is what termites eat.

If the dried blocks of mycelia were exposed to moisture, they would soon decompose. Even if they were kept dry, I think a whole host of small organisms would eat them. There would have to be a way to prevent them from getting wet or being consumed. Plastic?

[shortly]

Good point about the termites, as long as the fungus has metabolized all the growing media there wouldn't be anything left for termites.

Plasticizing would probably have to penetrate the entire block or it would probably start to degrade where it wasn't treated.

tung oil perhaps? nasty stuff though

Eucalypt resin in an ethanol carrier??

Bee's wax or hot carnauba wax & coconut oil??

[ergoamide]

They'd only need to coat the outside to stop anything being able to penetrate to rot it, plastcising the whole thing inside and out seems a bit supurfulous.

[tripsis]

That was what I meant, but it at least partially defeats them being ecologically friendly.

[.dg]

They make houses out of hay bales, a few inches of concrete/gunite is pretty earth friendly

Very cool concept, i hope it grows

[tripsis]

True, but I have to say, a piece of hay does not seem nearly as tasty to various bugs and microorganisms as a dried mushroom or dried mycelium does. If you leave both in a dry location, I pretty much guarantee that the later will be eaten long before the former. I suppose if the layer of concrete actually made it air tight and they the blocks weren't in contact with the earth, it would work.

[coco]

science novel come true. incredible arcticle

media should give things like that more attention