Anthropological Industrial Designer
Strategic, Innovative, & Futuristic Problem-Solver
Humanity-Centered & Versatile Fabricator
DIY MYCELIUM
Sustainable Material Fabrication for the Future's Industrial Designer
Problem:
I often pause to take in the objects that surround me, and one of the first features that catches my attention is their materiality. In the current social climate, that thought is often accompanied by wondering how “sustainable” the object actually is; whether the material is of natural origin, how far the material had to travel in its and the object’s production, how much water was spent in its production, whether the material will biodegrade or be easily recycled into reuse… The inquiries, doubts, and complexities are endless. This project was borne of my desire to understand the role played by materiality in the making of a technical artifact.
The problem that this project begins to tackle is threefold:
1) Knowledge of how materials are made, where they come from, and the sustainability impacts of that material are inaccessible for most people.
2) As such, the definition of "sustainability" is inconsistent and hidden behind knowledge barriers
3) I wanted to determine how to (w)hol(e)istically "grade" materials for designers & fabricators who are wanting to know what they are using:
- What it's made of
- Where it came from
- Who made it
- How using that material will impact the product created
- Resulting impact the object has had and will have on the planet and its residents
Target User
There are a few users that would benefit from the outcome of this project:
1) A designer who wants an understanding of the process of creation of a material to be used in the project, with far more control over every element of the process than possible in mass production.
2) Those who are looking for an example of someone who made mycelium at home
Research & Conceptual Development
Mood board - Visual & Contextual Inspiration
Other "Sustainable" Leather Replacements Considered for Testing
Cactus Leather from Desserto
Bacterial Nanocelulose from Modern Synthesis
Seaweed leather from Studio Tång
Coffee Chaff by Emma Thyni
Coffee Leather by Alice Genberg
Mycelium Leather from Mylo Leather
Materials "ID Card" Style Inspiration, from Materials for Design by Chris Lefteri
Fabrication
Final Material
Next Steps
- I definitely want to make mycelium again - there are steps to the process that I would refine to get a thinner, larger, more pliable outcome, with better mycelium growth / consumption of the substrate
- I'd love to determine the features specifically of the homemade mycelium material via physical testing, to enrich the features we already know about mycelium as a material
- Source samples of other plant-based materials to compare with the one I created
- Tackle part 3 of the problem defined at the beginning:
Determine how to (w)hol(e)istically "grade" materials for designers & fabricators who are wanting to know what they are using:
- What it's made of
- Where it came from
- Who made it
- How using that material will impact the product created
- Resulting impact the object has had and will have on the planet and its residents