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Increasing demand for sustainable building materials must now be part of the radical change needed to achieve an ecological architecture. Living materials, such as mycelium, have played a central role in the paradigm shift towards climate resiliency. By harnessing the power of biological growth and translating it into a sustainable building material, it presents an alternative to carbon-intensive material economies. The tension between mycelium's growth patterns and the architect's design agency invites nature to act as a design partner in creating an architectural scaffold made from wood and mycelium. Therefore, this research explores both a design that responds to mycelium's growth properties and the organism's structural properties. 3D printing wood scaffolds allows for design complexity and the orchestration of fungal growth. Using digital fabrication and mycelium, this research explores what design as a host for growth looks like and how it can reframe the discourse on sustainability to work symbiotically with nature.
Stephanie Steriotis (Mon,) studied this question.