Mycelium: The fascinating ‘mushroom material’
In simple terms, “mycelium” refers to a thread-like body of a fungus. The main part of the fungus is the mycelia, which lives inside substrate (e.g. wood, straw, grain). On the other hand, edible mushrooms are only a small visible part of such organisms.
In the last few years, there has been an increased interest to use mycelium as a material in various industries. A big factor for this is (you’ve probably guessed it): high biodegradability.
Construction
The capabilities of mycelium as a construction material were showcased through the “mushroom brick tower” made in 2014 by the architectural team The Living. Dubbed as “Hy-Fi”, it was located in the courtyard of MoMA’s PS1 space in midtown Manhattan. The team conceived the bricks from mycelium grown on agricultural waste.
The mushroom brick tower consisted of 10,000 bricks and reached 40 feet into the air. The mycelium brick is by far not as strong as a conventional brick — but then it is much lighter. Whereas bricks have a compressive strength of at least 28 MPa, the…
