Could growing furniture from fungi be the future?

The magic of mycelium mushrooms/

Mycelium has all sorts of useful properties as a manufacturing material. It can be grown into almost any shape and, depending on the substrate and how tightly it is packed, the finished product varies in density from the lightness of polystyrene foam to a board as hard as MDF.

Mycelium acts as an insulator for sound and heat. It is even fire resistant. The material – which is formed from the vegetative part of a fungus – has been used in various architecture and design experiments recently, so we decided to give it a go ourselves. We wanted to take you on this journey with us, as we document the step-by-step the process and explore the design possibilities of this new material.

To conduct this experience we purchased a fungi growing kit from Osmose Studio. The brand make mycelium substrate kits easily accessible allowing us all to work together towards a more sustainable future.

The Ready-to-Grow kits are suitable for all creative projects (interior, furniture, art, etc). Ideal for beginners or for artists and makers who want to get stuck in with growing.

Osmose Studio also run workshops and a design consultancy service for individuals and businesses. One of the focuses being to create interior wall coverings for the hospitality sector – things like lampshades, wall panels and artworks.

During our initial research we explored videos, tutorials and write ups to understand the requirements of the growing conditions, environment and also how complex of a design we should create. The designers at our innovation lab made the decision to start simple. Creating a design that has a consistent wall thickness to make sure we have a good chance of getting a good result. With this is mind as we began choosing the design for this project a minimalist table display bowl won our vote!

The bowl has an asymmetric tear shape and the idea is that the rim would take on a natural organic finish formed by the growth of the mycelium as it spills from between the 2 parts of the mould. Keeping the CAD and mould itself simplistic, the designers idea is to allow the visual interest to come from the material itself.

The mould was 3D printed in 2 parts then filled and sanded to be as smooth as possible, this is to make it easier to clean and sterilise – allowing the mycelium the correct conditions to grow.

Getting growing…

This kit we are using will allow us to grow forms and materials without the stress of sterilising/ looking after mycelium cultures.

Before beginning the process we popped on our gloves, wiped down and sterilised the mould with 70% alcohol before packing it up.

We must wait around 1-1.5 weeks to see the growth and allow a temperature of 21-25 celcius to create the optimum environment for mycelium bowl to grow.

(Project in progress) Head back soon to see the results of our Mycelium experiment.