In California, a 300-unit affordable housing complex called Phoenix is being built by Autodesk Research using mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.
Developers hope the innovation—dubbed mycotecture–will help decarbonize building and construction, which currently accounts for a about a third of global CO2 emissions. The buildings’ core is comprised of mycelium composite panels with exteriors having an extra fiberglass cladding to resist the elements.
“The big-picture question that my group is researching is, how do we drastically reduce the carbon in buildings at the same time that we’re drastically increasing the total number of buildings? We need something that’s better than just 5% efficiency for five years,” David Benjamin, the applied research lead on net-zero buildings at Autodesk, tells Fast Company.
Strength and durability concerns still need to be addressed, but mycelium has natural soundproofing and insulation characteristics and is lightweight, cheap, and sustainable. “There are a lot of things to combine with mycelium that are natural and organic,” Benjamin said. “So, it’s probably only a matter of another maybe 10 years before we can start dialing in the properties of mycelium to be as strong, durable, and flexible as we need by just investing in more tests, more engineering.”
Phoenix is expected to be open in 2024 and provide a blueprint for mycelium housing projects