The construction industry is looking for new bio-materials to fill the gap that finite raw materials such as metals and sand will soon leave. The focus is increasingly on bio-organisms such as algae, bacteria and fungi. In particular, the development of building materials from mycelium, the fine fibre mesh of fungi, seems promising. The first insulation materials and acoustic panels are already being commercially produced as fire-retardant and emission-free mycelial materials. Scientists from the fields of biotechnology and microbiology are working together with engineers, architects and designers in international teams to develop sustainable composite materials made of fungal meshes with new design and construction options for the construction industry. Mycelia have the ability to build up complex structures with extreme precision and to link with each other to form larger structures.
Building material for Nasa
The myco-architecture project at Nasa's Ames Research Center is investigating new fungal materials for future extraterrestrial habitats. The fibrous fungal mycelium is activated locally by adding water and food produced by bacteria. Structures, from furniture to buildings, then grow into shape along lightweight basic frameworks. To stop the growth process of the organisms, they are heated. After their utilization phase, the fungal structures pass into the closed supply cycle, for example as agricultural fertilizer. The first prototypes are currently being developed in laboratory environments, and extraterrestrial implementation is of course still a long way off. However, the research activities are relevant for terrestrial construction: Experiments with fungal mycelia show compressive strengths superior to those of wood, as well as flexural strengths like those of reinforced concrete and competitive insulation values. The mycelia can form bioplastics that are environmentally friendly, robust, flexible and stretchable. They are suitable for water filtration, bioluminescent lighting, moisture regulation and self-healing structures.
Symbiosis of science and art
For more than 10 years, scientists at the Institute of Biotechnology at the TU Berlin have also been researching the synthesis, decomposition and metabolic performance of various fungi and developing smart cultivation methods. However, for the Mind the Fungi project, Vera Meyer, Professor of Applied and Molecular Microbiology, and Peter Neubauer, Professor of Bioprocess Engineering, abandoned the traditional paths of application research. In cooperation with the Art Laboratory Berlin, as part of Citizen Science approaches and with the help of artists, the scientists worked on new future fungus- and lichen-based materials. The project focused on local biodiversity, i.e. regional tree fungi and their potential as sustainable materials. Together with the architect Sven Pfeiffer, since 2020 Professor for Digital Design, Planning and Construction at the Bochum University of Applied Sciences, the scientists developed mushroom-based Bio-Bricks for the construction industry. Thanks to a tongue-and-groove system, the mushroom brick, which weighs just 160 g, could serve as a flexible modular system – ideally suited for temporary structures that are composted after use. In cooperation with Matthias Finkbeiner, Professor of Sustainable Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, a significantly better ecological balance has been determined for the BioBrick compared to the traditional clay or concrete bricks. For real-world applications, however, the scientists see greater potential in digital and hybrid construction methods. Vera Meyer and Sven Pfeiffer are the founders of the My-Co-X science art collective. They are currently working on the inhabitable sculpture My-Co Space. The sculpture features hexagonal, modular mushroom blocks embedded in a parametric timber framework structure. From May 2021 the My-Co Build exhibition at the Futurium in Berlin will show how a synthesis of fungus-based composites with wood, concrete or bioplastics could change the future of construction.
Hybrid architecture
A concrete proposal for a load-bearing structure made of fungal mycelium and bamboo was developed in 2017 by scientists from the Department of Sustainable Construction at the Faculty of Architecture of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in cooperation with the Block Research Group at ETH Zurich. The Myco-Tree consists of building blocks that have been stacked on top of each other using bamboo connectors to form a branched structure. Despite the relatively soft mushroom-mesh building material, it is surprisingly stable and supports its roof structure itself. In order to optimise the static properties, a polyhedron shape following the force curve was chosen. The overall aim of the researchers and scientists is to use fungal products to transform the oil-based economy into a sustainable, bio-based (circular) economy.
