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From Tripping to Treading Lightly: The Rise of Mycelium-Based Design

Matters Journal

Mycelium Lighting designed by Josh Riesel

Words by Alexi Freeman

While microdosing psilocybin-containing mushrooms may brighten the colours of your world, using the basic mycelium of mushrooms to make sustainable design may make the world a little greener — long after your microtrip ends.

Mushrooms, with their ancient mastery, have quietly spread their mycelium — a complex network of thread-like roots — for over a billion years. While the world drowns in plastic waste that takes centuries to decompose, mycelium-based design practice emerges as a buoyant lifeboat, harnessing mycelium’s many natural properties. A new generation of design researchers are delving deeply into mycelium's potential, illuminating a sustainable path for creating environmentally responsible design products. Im-permanent is a survey exhibition of mycelium practice and an official part of NGV Melbourne Design Week 2023 running from May 18 - 28, at The Store Gallery, Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne.

But Im-permanent isn’t just an exhibition, it's a portal into the uncharted territories of mycelium practice. Featuring eminent design and science practitioners, this survey showcases the infinite possibilities of this remarkable material, inviting its audience to journey into the mysterious subterranean world of mycelium.

With 50 practitioners coming together to showcase their research, Im-permanent is a fung-tastic demonstration of what happens when science, design and Nature converge.

Im-permanent’s 20 projects are a testament to the incredible versatility of mycelium as both a design method and medium, shining light into a world where mycelium could address pressing real-world problems including medicine, materials and products.

At its core, Im-permanent is a celebration of the infinite potential of Nature, and a timely reminder that when we collaborate with the natural world, the mutual achievements are limitless. The exhibition explores applications including furniture, lighting, packaging, textiles, building and interior products.

The tour de force behind Im-permanent is curator Josh Riesel, one of the most knowledgeable mycelium practitioners in Australia. Riesel collaborated on numerous artefacts in Im-permanent and Riesel’s impetus behind putting together the exhibition was “...to create a space for the mycelium community to come together and share the incredible life and tactility of the medium that can’t be fully communicated through digital formats.”

But the mycelium revolution isn’t confined to an underground realm of creative minds and scientific exploration in Melbourne. Its spores have spread far and wide, capturing investment from some of the world's most iconic brands as they compete for a slice of the eco-friendly market.

With companies like Bolt Threads developing a mycelium-based leather that has been embraced by industry giants including Adidas, Mercedes-Benz and Stella McCartney, the mycelium phenomenon is well down the pipe to the mainstream.

Meanwhile, Ecovative's compostable mycelium packaging is being explored by global corporations such as Dell and IKEA, enhancing mycelium’s reputation as an increasingly feasible and sustainable solution for packaging and material needs. The mycelium boom isn’t a passing trend but a transformative force shaping the future of design research and industry.

This growing interest in mycelium globally is scaffolded by local designers who continue to unearth its potential. Dr Judith Glover is an industrial designer with decades of experience at the forefront of sustainable design.

Glover’s mycelial artefact in Im-permanent titled ‘Increasing Circularity’ is an evolution of their previous work ‘Fireless Skin’- a fire retardant building skin for bushfire-prone areas - that’s been reiterated as an exquisite modular tiling system applicable to an eco-friendly building façade.

Glover’s latest collaborations with aerospace engineering and industrial design researchers have enhanced mycelium's natural fire-retardant properties by growing it with terracotta and glass recycled from their previous project (‘Fireless Skin’) to push mycelium’s capacity to create circular loops of production.

Fireless Skin Instal; Photography by Tom Ross

Dr Gyungju Chyon's 'Round Rhizome Rings' is a stunning example of mycelium’s potential as a sustainable biomaterial and acoustic solution. Designed collaboratively with John Sadar and Simon Lloyd, these room dividers further demonstrate mycelium’s versatility as a design medium.

Each waffle-esque artefact is unique, tessellating to form a suspended screen providing both an acoustic barrier and a mesmerising aesthetic experience. While the mycelium slowly dehydrates it continues to evolve temporally, shifting its palette and organic patterns over time.

Round Rhizome Rings; Photography by Dr Gyungju Chyon

As evidenced by the highly discursive range of mycelium-based artefacts exhibited in Im-permanent, the mycelial design space is ripe for exploration and further development could be the key to unlocking a greener future. Im-permanent celebrates diverse approaches between artists, designers, engineers and scientists, not only highlighting mycelium’s meteoric potential as a new material, but as a conduit for problem-solving through interdisciplinary collaboration.

And with an estimated 3.7 million species of fungi yet to be described by science, what other hidden capabilities may mushroom technology offer us in the future?

So, feeling ready to engage with this inspirational material that’s as old as complex life on Earth? If so, head on over to Im-permanent and empower yourself through creative practitioners collaborating mutualistically with mycelium.

Alexi is a freelance writer, designer and researcher with a Master of Design from RMIT. Event info: https://designweek.melbourne/events/im-permanent/

Alexi’s research into mycelium is also exhibited in Im-permanent.

The exhibition is free, no booking required.