About This Project

Myco-composites are sustainable and renewable alternatives to toxic petroleum plastics but require monitored growth and environmental conditions with high contamination risk that rely on plastics to keep conditions sterile. These factors restrict fabrication and can't be fully integrated into current manufacturing infrastructure. Our objective is to combine new fungal strains, media & substrates to create low contamination risk, scalable, and hand sculptable material for large scale structures.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Myco-materials have been used as decorative elements in architectural structures, but the design and mechanical properties of these sculptures are physically constrained by simple molds. This results in block forms, shallow relief, and 3D printed aesthetics. These applications are nascent in form & function, but newer formulations show that myco-materials can be used more broadly, such as clay-like materials. However, current myco-material recipes rely on sterile environments and hand manipulation results in mycelial contamination. To integrate mycelium into existing sculpting techniques, our work expands current formulations to create a repeatable, low contamination risk material. Our previous prototype has successfully proven that this work can be used in a multitude of environments.

What is the significance of this project?

The majority of artists’ materials contain chemically toxic, non-recyclable plastics with damaging effects on human health and the environment. For example, petroleum foams break down into microplastics containing endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Alternatively, commercial myco-materials are only available on a small scale. Here, we examine a series of mycelial materials to optimize large scale applications of sculptable fungal structures. By combining experience with formulating biomaterials and expertise in culturing, training, and cultivating mycelium, this research expands standard mycelial materials with novel techniques to create more accessible, hand sculptable substrates with functional and structural properties for fruiting mycelium.

What are the goals of the project?

As myco-materials are becoming commercially available, they are not yet suitable for high impact applications such as support structures or armature. Our research aims to compare combinations of strains, media, and substrates both economically and mechanically to formulate a myco-composite that is competitive to petroleum building materials such as plywood and polymer gypsum. This work will evaluate the parameters that define a continuous and strong structure by comparing analytical and qualitative data. As this research has significant impacts not just in the sciences but also in art, design, architecture and industry, we plan to disseminate this work through a report that is accessible to all communities.