Project description
Building with mycelium-based technologies
The construction industry is one of the biggest and most resource-consuming industries in Europe. Due to record growth in population and increasing urbanisation occurring all around the globe, the demand for the industry is higher than ever before. It’s also constantly increasing. This increase poses a serious problem as it stretches the industry to its limits. The EU-funded FUNGAR project aims to develop a structural substrate using live fungal mycelium infused with nanoparticles and polymers. This structural substrate will be able to create buildings, which will self-grow, build and repair themselves while also adapting to the environment. To do this, they have assembled a team of architects, designers, computer scientists, biophysicists, mycologists and experts in mycelium-based technologies.
Objective
As one of the primary consumers of environmental resource, the building industry faces unprecedented challenges in needing to reduce the environmental impact of current consumption practices. This applies to both the construction of the built environment and resource consumption during its occupation and use. Where incremental improvements to current practices can be realised, the net benefits are often far outstripped by the burgeoning demands of rapidly increasing population growth and urbanisation. Against the backdrop of this grand societal challenge, it is necessary to explore approaches that envision a paradigm shift in how material is sourced, processed and assembled to address the magnitude of these challenges in a truly sustainable way, and which can even provide added value. We propose to develop a structural substrate by using live fungal mycelium (WP2), functionalise the substrate with nanoparticles and polymers to make a mycelium-based electronics (WP3), implement sensorial fusion and decision making in the fungal electronics (WP4) and to growing monolithic buildings from the functionalized fungal substrate (WP5). Fungal buildings will self-grow, build, and repair themselves subject to substrate supplied, use natural adaptation to the environment, sense all what human can sense. To achieve the goal we assembled a small but efficient consortium comprised of architects and designers (CITA), computer scientists and biophysicists (UWE), mycologists (UU), experts in mycelium-based technologies for the production (MOGU).
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
BS16 1QY Bristol
United Kingdom