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
. 2022 May 10;7(2):60.
doi: 10.3390/biomimetics7020060.

Are Mushrooms Parametric?

Dilan Ozkan  1 , Ruth Morrow  1 , Meng Zhang  2 , Martyn Dade-Robertson  1
Affiliations

Are Mushrooms Parametric?

Dilan Ozkan et al. Biomimetics (Basel). .

Abstract

Designing with biological materials as a burgeoning approach in the architecture field requires the development of new design strategies and fabrication methods. In this paper, we question if designers can use a parametric design approach while working with living materials. The research uses fungi as a biomaterial probe to experiment with the parametric behavior of living systems. Running design experiments using fungi helps to understand the extent to which biological systems can be considered parametric and, if so, what kind of parametric systems they are. Answering these questions provides a method to work with complex biological systems and may lead to new approaches of fabricating materials by tuning the environmental parameters of biological growth.

Keywords: fungal fruiting bodies; linearity; non-linearity; parametric design thinking; plasticity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The developmental path of the fungal reproductive phase.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The positioning of the mushrooms in the gravity experiment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The preparation of the samples for the substrate amount experiment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The locations of the measurement points.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The results of the humidity experiment, front (column 1), side (column 2) and detailed (column 3).
Figure 6
Figure 6
The comparison of gills and stipe under different humilities; images are captured using a Dino-Lite digital microscope at 70× magnification.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The results of the CO2 experiment, front (column 1), side (column 2), and detailed photos (column 3).
Figure 8
Figure 8
The results of gravity experiment at high CO2 (5000 ppm), front (column 1), side (column 2), and detailed (column 3) photos.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The results of gravity experiment at low CO2 (200 ppm), front (column 1), side (column 2), and detailed (column 3) photos.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The results of the substrate amount experiment, side (column 1), top (column 2), and detailed (column 3) photos.
Figure 11
Figure 11
The overlay of the triplicate 3D scans of the mushrooms (at the same scale) grown under the same environmental conditions: The average sizes and the overlayed mushrooms in the (a) humidity (b) CO2; (c) gravity; (d) substrate amount experiment.
Figure 12
Figure 12
The mushroom growth—variables relationship.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sherry A. Enhancing PFASs Attenuation in Coastal Brownfield Soils (EPACS): Enhancing Natural System Attenuation Capacity for a Key Emerging Contaminant. 2016. [(accessed on 14 March 2022)]. Available online: https://ebnet.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/343/2021/02/EBNet-POC2020-S....
    1. Adamatzky A., Ayres P., Belotti G., Wosten H. Fungal architecture. Int. J. Unconv. Comput. 2019. [(accessed on 14 March 2022)]. pp. 1–15. Available online: http://arxiv.org/abs/1912.13262.
    1. Ozkan D., Dade-Robertson M., Morrow R., Zhang M. Design a living material through bio-digital fabrication, in towards a new, configurable architecture; Proceedings of 39th ECAADE Conference; Novi Sad, Serbia. 8–10 September 2021; pp. 77–84.
    1. Ramirez-Figueroa C. Ph.D. Thesis. Newcastle University; Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: 2017. Biomaterial Probe-Design Engagements with Living Systems.
    1. Ozkan D., Christagen B., Dade-Robertson M. 4th International Conference of Biodigital Architecture & Genetics. Butterworth-Heinemann; Oxford, UK: 2020. Demonstrating a Material Making Process through the Cultivation of Mycelium Growth; pp. 94–103.

LinkOut - more resources