Making houses out of mushrooms
Building made of "green" materials Buildings made from
natural resources are challenging conventions in design
Much of the construction industry depends on fossil fuels,
creating a big carbon footprint. As pressure mounts to make
construction "greener", experts have started to design
houses out of hemp and straw, and bricks made of mushrooms.
>From a distance, it looks like something out of a desert
landscape, ancient and handmade.
The closer you get, the more you see something much more
modern in the curves of this tower, assembled from 10,000
bricks.
But it is only when you examine one of those bricks close-up
that you get a sense of what the future might hold. Using
bioengineering, this structure has been made from mushrooms.
"This is a hybrid of what I call an ancient technology of
mushrooms and a totally new technology of computation and
engineering," says architect David Benjamin.
The mushroom - or mycelium, the vegetative part of the
fungus - is an ideal material, Mr Benjamin explains.
These bricks score high marks for sustainability because
they were "grown" with no carbon emissions and no waste.
"We want to use living systems as factories to grow new
materials
-- David Benjamin Architect
The 40ft (12m) structure he is referring to currently sits
in a courtyard at MoMA PS1, an art gallery in New York.
The mushroom brick is "grown" by mixing together chopped-up
corn husks with mycelium.
The mixture is then put into a brick mould and left to grow
for five days. The result is a brick that is solid, but
lightweight.
The "mushroom tower" is then assembled using a custom
algorithm to lay the bricks layer by layer.
This method lets builders use local materials like
agricultural waste, and also makes the bricks biodegradable.
These particular bricks were created from materials in the
New York area. But the method can travel. In places where
rice is abundant, people can use rice hulls in the mixture
with mycelium to create bricks.
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How the mushroom house was built
For "organic" construction such as the one, builders use
agricultural waste
* Old cornstalks and parts of mushrooms were collected
* The organic material was put into a mould and then
allowed to set as bricks
* The bricks were arranged to create the structure
* Some of the blocks at the top of the building were
covered in light-refracting film
Mr Benjamin's belief in the power of biotechnology is
evident in the name of his architectural firm, The Living.
"We want to use living systems as factories to grow new
materials," he says. "Hopefully this will help us see cities
more as living breathing organisms than solid, static, inert
places."
Meanwhile another architect has also been growing
"bio-bricks", using a different process.
Ginger Krieg Dosier is the creator of a brick made with sand
and bacteria, filled into a mould and then fed with a
nutrient solution. Five days later, the bricks are removed
and ready to use.
The chemical reaction caused by this mixture "bio-cements"
the grains together to create a solid brick.
This quest for the bio-brick took Ms Dosier from the world
of architecture to science, where she consulted with
microbiologists and chemists in order to come up with a
formula.
Building made of "green" materials Bricks made from
mushrooms are biodegradable
"Even as a child, I have been fascinated with how nature is
able to produce durable and structural cements in ambient
temperatures," she says.
Her brick is now being used in a pilot project to make
paving.
She worked for a while in the United Arab Emirates - where
sand, of course, is plentiful - but has now relocated her
company, BioMason, to North Carolina.
The work of Mr Benjamin and Ms Dosier point to a new level
of innovation which some say is much needed in the building
industry.
"While they are experimental, it is very exciting to see
these types of leapfrog technologies that take cues from
nature to find creative alternatives to some of the oldest
conventions in design," says Jacob Kriss from the US Green
Building Council.
The council is responsible for a rating system called LEED,
which rewards sustainable design in buildings. Mr Kriss says
the building sector is responsible for almost 40% of carbon
dioxide emissions in the US.
"There is an unquestionable imperative to green our stock of
both new and existing buildings," Mr Kriss says.
"It is these types of innovations that can help us turn the
corner to create resilient, healthy, high-performing
structures that are better for the planet and the people who
use them every day."
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