Fungi Fabrication: Mycelium Materials

From the organizers:

As the design studio and biotech lab merge, the designer’s material palette is expanding. Designed objects are increasingly being made with materials from nature, and nature’s ultimate decomposer, fungi, is of the most exciting sources ripe with design potential. Creative applications for fungi based materials grown with mycelium range from biodegradable ‘styrofoams’ to leather-like textile alternatives.

In this course we will work with mycelium as material for experimental design applications. Working hands-on in the lab, participants will grow a variety of samples, starting from a store bought mushroom, to mycelium grown using experimental techniques, to shaping molds to form mycelium composite materials grown to shape.

Participants will gain skills and insight into potential applications for fungi based materials—walking away with new knowledge, mycelium tissue-culture skills, and grown material samples.