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Tuesday, February 02, 2021
One day, your home could be made with mushrooms
The Verge: Mushrooms are helping architects and engineers solve one the world’s biggest crises: climate change. These fungi are durable, biodegradable, and are proving to be a good alternative to more polluting materials.
Mushrooms are fascinating organisms. I have always been intrigued by them and the way they grow and through fungal networks. While I absolutely cannot stand to eat them I even worked at a mushroom stand at the farmers market when I was younger. I think it is also fascinating how they are being considered for use as building materials. It is so wonderful that they use less carbon dioxide than conventional building materials and that they are overall more environmentally friendly. The article states that they are biodegradable which makes me question their longevity for use such as building a house but I think for more temporary projects it is a wonderful innovation. Construction materials as a whole are generally quite wasteful or use large amounts of carbon dioxide, so it's very exciting that alternative methods and processes are being created and tested. I hope in the future our society moves towards utilizing products that are less harmful to our environment because it ultimately is our responsibility to protect it and care for it.
The title of this article… how could you not be absolutely intrigued? I definitely love the idea of a mushroom-material house, for a few reasons. Obviously, global warming is a huge issue and we need to take immediate action to slow the effects. The building materials the article talks about could help that, within the building industry. Secondly, and of far less importance to greater humanity: it reminded me of hobbit holes for some reason. I could live out my 2nd grade dream of having a real life hobbit house, but a bit more modern and more like houses we have today… maybe it doesn’t make much sense, but that is exactly what my mind thought of! This is just an all around fun article. The title is amazing, and they even called the new research on these materials the “mushroom revolution”. That is more than enough to have me intrigued about this idea; I look forward to hearing more about it in the future!
First of all, I am loving the idea of mushroom bricks as new, green building materials, though I do question their durability in the current stage of development; it seems like they might erode more quickly than current buildings, but that may be my misunderstanding of how biodegradable materials work. Secondly, for the most part, I could not stop thinking about the sentience of fungi and mycelium as I was reading this article and watching the video. According to American mycologist Paul Stamets, mycelium is sentient. He once said, "The mycelium is sentient. It knows that you are there. When you walk across landscapes, it leaps up in the aftermath of your footsteps trying to grab debris." There is something either oddly comforting or vaguely disconcerting about a sentient building that reaches for your presence (though this could be apparently mitigated by heating the bricks to terminate its growth, as in the video).
This is an intriguing concept that seems to hold a lot of potential for the future. Climate change is clearly one of, of not, the biggest dangers we face on this planet. Making bricks out of mycelia seems to be a very promising alternative to conventional building techniques. It obviously has a long way to go before they can be mass produced and replace more conventional building materials, most notably concrete, but there is clearly potential. Based on the video, and in particular the installation with the blocks that can connect themselves, this makes me think that if these do ultimately become commonplace, that structures of mycelia may actually be “self healing” or repairable in a way that other materials may not be. All that being said, the article does clearly mention that such bricks would be biodegradable, which raises some questions to me. If they will naturally biodegrade, what kind of longevity would these materials have? I am assuming there would need to be adequate waterproofing for the material to minimize breakdown, so would this also be a green fix? Or would we create another climate problem by solving the problem of building materials? And, if the mycelia need to be replaced, can old mycelia be recycled into new building material? I'm sure the developers of this new, promising building material alternative have already thought of these questions, and hell, maybe they’ve even solved them. In any case I believe this is a very promising endeavor.
Science is art. Science is art. Science is art! Dang mushrooms are cool. I just had mushrooms for dinner (I don't think those are going to be building any buildings but at least they mitigated my hunger) I thought the coolest portion of the video was when the mushroom expert talked about how mushrooms have survived all major extinctions! I also didn't know that cement production created so many carbon emissions... I think that the use of the mushrooms in art is a great start to this work and I would like to point out that major breakthroughs in science and engineering are typically first explored through art and then brought into a larger use. I don't know if we will be seeing a complete building made of mushrooms anytime soon but that would sure be a sight to see! I want to know if these bricks smell?? Like the fact that the mushroom brick burned... I don't know if that would be the most pleasant thing to smell. What happens when these bricks get wet?
I’m incredibly fascinated and excited about the idea of mushroom bricks being the big new building material. I do agree with the fact that there is still a lot further to go when it comes to making these mushroom bricks more durable. I have a lot of questions. Because mushroom bricks are more biodegradable than cement bricks, does that mean that over time building made of these mushroom bricks would slowly deteriorate? If your house is made of mycelium, wouldn’t that be really bad? Are the mushroom bricks waterproof? Would living in a place where hurricanes or tropical storms happen every year worsen the quality and durability of the mushroom bricks? As I said, lots of questions and still much more research to be done. However, I stand by the fact that making bricks out of mycelium and replacing cement bricks with mushrooms would be a great way to transition the construction industry to a greener way of doing things.
Whoever titled this article hit the nail on the head… I understand why there are 8 comments on this one! I would LOVE to have a house made of mushrooms one day!!! This is such a great idea. I watched the video linked in the article, and it’s so cool that they are searching for mushroom varieties in the forests of Pennsylvania. The passion William expressed in the video really made me want to go hiking and spend some time in nature. It’s so great to know that we’re getting a lot closer to creating sustainable alternatives to some of the worst producers of carbon emissions. It makes it seem more possible for us to achieve great change by 2030 so we can eventually reverse climate change. It’s our responsibility to do so. I’m so glad to see people doing something about this. I’m even prouder that it’s young people, too!
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9 comments:
Mushrooms are fascinating organisms. I have always been intrigued by them and the way they grow and through fungal networks. While I absolutely cannot stand to eat them I even worked at a mushroom stand at the farmers market when I was younger. I think it is also fascinating how they are being considered for use as building materials. It is so wonderful that they use less carbon dioxide than conventional building materials and that they are overall more environmentally friendly. The article states that they are biodegradable which makes me question their longevity for use such as building a house but I think for more temporary projects it is a wonderful innovation. Construction materials as a whole are generally quite wasteful or use large amounts of carbon dioxide, so it's very exciting that alternative methods and processes are being created and tested. I hope in the future our society moves towards utilizing products that are less harmful to our environment because it ultimately is our responsibility to protect it and care for it.
The title of this article… how could you not be absolutely intrigued? I definitely love the idea of a mushroom-material house, for a few reasons. Obviously, global warming is a huge issue and we need to take immediate action to slow the effects. The building materials the article talks about could help that, within the building industry. Secondly, and of far less importance to greater humanity: it reminded me of hobbit holes for some reason. I could live out my 2nd grade dream of having a real life hobbit house, but a bit more modern and more like houses we have today… maybe it doesn’t make much sense, but that is exactly what my mind thought of! This is just an all around fun article. The title is amazing, and they even called the new research on these materials the “mushroom revolution”. That is more than enough to have me intrigued about this idea; I look forward to hearing more about it in the future!
First of all, I am loving the idea of mushroom bricks as new, green building materials, though I do question their durability in the current stage of development; it seems like they might erode more quickly than current buildings, but that may be my misunderstanding of how biodegradable materials work. Secondly, for the most part, I could not stop thinking about the sentience of fungi and mycelium as I was reading this article and watching the video. According to American mycologist Paul Stamets, mycelium is sentient. He once said, "The mycelium is sentient. It knows that you are there. When you walk across landscapes, it leaps up in the aftermath of your footsteps trying to grab debris." There is something either oddly comforting or vaguely disconcerting about a sentient building that reaches for your presence (though this could be apparently mitigated by heating the bricks to terminate its growth, as in the video).
This is an intriguing concept that seems to hold a lot of potential for the future. Climate change is clearly one of, of not, the biggest dangers we face on this planet. Making bricks out of mycelia seems to be a very promising alternative to conventional building techniques. It obviously has a long way to go before they can be mass produced and replace more conventional building materials, most notably concrete, but there is clearly potential. Based on the video, and in particular the installation with the blocks that can connect themselves, this makes me think that if these do ultimately become commonplace, that structures of mycelia may actually be “self healing” or repairable in a way that other materials may not be. All that being said, the article does clearly mention that such bricks would be biodegradable, which raises some questions to me. If they will naturally biodegrade, what kind of longevity would these materials have? I am assuming there would need to be adequate waterproofing for the material to minimize breakdown, so would this also be a green fix? Or would we create another climate problem by solving the problem of building materials? And, if the mycelia need to be replaced, can old mycelia be recycled into new building material? I'm sure the developers of this new, promising building material alternative have already thought of these questions, and hell, maybe they’ve even solved them. In any case I believe this is a very promising endeavor.
Science is art. Science is art. Science is art! Dang mushrooms are cool. I just had mushrooms for dinner (I don't think those are going to be building any buildings but at least they mitigated my hunger) I thought the coolest portion of the video was when the mushroom expert talked about how mushrooms have survived all major extinctions! I also didn't know that cement production created so many carbon emissions... I think that the use of the mushrooms in art is a great start to this work and I would like to point out that major breakthroughs in science and engineering are typically first explored through art and then brought into a larger use. I don't know if we will be seeing a complete building made of mushrooms anytime soon but that would sure be a sight to see! I want to know if these bricks smell?? Like the fact that the mushroom brick burned... I don't know if that would be the most pleasant thing to smell. What happens when these bricks get wet?
I’m incredibly fascinated and excited about the idea of mushroom bricks being the big new building material. I do agree with the fact that there is still a lot further to go when it comes to making these mushroom bricks more durable. I have a lot of questions. Because mushroom bricks are more biodegradable than cement bricks, does that mean that over time building made of these mushroom bricks would slowly deteriorate? If your house is made of mycelium, wouldn’t that be really bad? Are the mushroom bricks waterproof? Would living in a place where hurricanes or tropical storms happen every year worsen the quality and durability of the mushroom bricks? As I said, lots of questions and still much more research to be done. However, I stand by the fact that making bricks out of mycelium and replacing cement bricks with mushrooms would be a great way to transition the construction industry to a greener way of doing things.
Whoever titled this article hit the nail on the head… I understand why there are 8 comments on this one! I would LOVE to have a house made of mushrooms one day!!! This is such a great idea. I watched the video linked in the article, and it’s so cool that they are searching for mushroom varieties in the forests of Pennsylvania. The passion William expressed in the video really made me want to go hiking and spend some time in nature. It’s so great to know that we’re getting a lot closer to creating sustainable alternatives to some of the worst producers of carbon emissions. It makes it seem more possible for us to achieve great change by 2030 so we can eventually reverse climate change. It’s our responsibility to do so. I’m so glad to see people doing something about this. I’m even prouder that it’s young people, too!
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