Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Apr 14;7(2):44.
doi: 10.3390/biomimetics7020044.

Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling up Architectural Applications of Mycelium-Based Materials with Digital Fabrication

Selina Bitting  1 , Tiziano Derme  2 , Juney Lee  1 , Tom Van Mele  1 , Benjamin Dillenburger  2 , Philippe Block  1
Affiliations
Review

Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling up Architectural Applications of Mycelium-Based Materials with Digital Fabrication

Selina Bitting et al. Biomimetics (Basel). .

Abstract

In an increasing effort to address the environmental challenges caused by the currently linear economic paradigm of "produce, use, and discard", the construction industry has been shifting towards a more circular model. A circular economy requires closing of the loops, where the end-of-life of a building is considered more carefully, and waste is used as a resource. In comparison to traditional building materials such as timber, steel and concrete, mycelium-based materials are renewable alternatives that use organic agricultural and industrial waste as a key ingredient for production, and do not rely on mass extraction or exploitation of valuable finite or non-finite resources. Mycelium-based materials have shown their potential as a more circular and economically competitive alternative to conventional synthetic materials in numerous industries ranging from packaging, electronic prototyping, furniture, fashion to architecture. However, application of mycelium-based materials in the construction industry has been limited to small-scale prototypes and architectural installations due to low mechanical properties, lack of standardisation in production methods and material characterisation. This paper aims to review the current state of the art in research and applications of mycelium-based materials across disciplines, with a particular focus on digital methods of fabrication, production, and design. The information gathered from this review will be synthesised to identify key challenges in scaling up applications of mycelium-based materials as load-bearing structural elements in architecture and suggest opportunities and directions for future research.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; architecture; circular economy; computational design; digital fabrication; mycelium; structural design; subtractive manufacturing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Circularity and workflow of current manufacturing processes applied to mycelium-based materials, adapted from [15,16,17].
Figure 2
Figure 2
A comparison of mycelium-based materials to standard materials, with data adapted from [30,31]. Underlying Ashby plot created using CES EduPack 2019, ANSYS Granta © 2020 Granta Design.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Current additive manufacturing approaches for mycelium-bound composites: (a) substrate core deposition [52] (Julia Krayer and Fraunhofer UMSICHT © 2022); (b) filament-based scaffolds [55] (reprinted with permission from Alima et al., Proceedings of the 2021 DigitalFUTURES; 2022); and (c) bio-inks [59] (reprinted with permission from Goidea et al., Pulp Faction: 3d Printed Material Assemblies through Microbial Biotransformation; published by UCL Press, 2020).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Typical subtractive manufacturing techniques: (a) milling (cutting) flat, panel-like specimen; (b) milling (carving) volumetric specimen; and (c) wire-cutting volumetric specimen.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Two examples of MBC grown in a mould, rendered inert, and CNC milled thereafter Reproduced and reprinted with permission from: (a) Peek; 2021 [45]; and (b) Lazaro et al., Proceedings of the UbiComp/ISWC; 2019 [46].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Overview of mycelium-based material typologies and applications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Miyatake Y. Technology Development and Sustainable Construction. J. Manag. Eng. 1996;12:23–27. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(1996)12:4(23). - DOI
    1. Heisel F., Rau-Oberhuber S. Calculation and Evaluation of Circularity Indicators for the Built Environment Using the Case Studies of UMAR and Madaster. J. Clean. Prod. 2019;243:118482. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118482. - DOI
    1. Ding G.K.C. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Sustainable Building Materials: An Overview. In: Pacheco-Torgal F., Cabeza L.F., Labrincha J., de Magalhães A., editors. Eco-Efficient Construction and Building Materials. Woodhead Publishing; Sawston, UK: 2014. pp. 38–62.
    1. Javadian A., Ferrand H.L., Hebel D.E., Saeidi N. Application of Mycelium-Bound Composite Materials in Construction Industry: A Short Review. SOJ Mater. Sci. Eng. 2020;7:1–9.
    1. Todorovic T., Norström E., Khabbaz F., Brücher J., Malmström E., Fogelström L. A Fully Bio-Based Wood Adhesive Valorising Hemicellulose-Rich Sidestreams from the Pulp Industry. Green Chem. 2021;23:3322–3333. doi: 10.1039/D0GC04273K. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources