Growing My-stone: Bio-based Craftsmanship and Slow Making Through Living Mineralisation

This pictorial investigates how biological processes can guide material fabrication, positioning microbial growth as a sustainable method for architectural construction. This approach frames bio-based craftsmanship as material making grounded in biological activity rather than industrial production. The research builds on ureolytic microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) applied to construction and demolition (C&D) waste, using the fungal strain Trichoderma reesei . The project, titled My-stone , documents a fabrication process that begins with the inoculation of C&D aggregates with living fungi and continues through weekly feeding with nutrients, calcium chloride, and urea. As the mycelium develops, it gradually binds aggregates into a stable composite with its biomass, cementing this process by inducing calcium carbonate precipitation. Through this staged formation, mineralised material emerges over time, which we term slow making as a way of producing locally sourced, site-specific, and context-dependent material as a craft-based technique for architectural and design practices.