Upscaling Mycelium-based Composites for Sustainable Architecture Elements
Doktorandin | M. Sc. Eda Özdemir
Betreuung | Prof. Philipp Eversmann & Dr. Andrea Rossi
Upscaling Mycelium-based Composites for Sustainable Architecture Elements
In the past decades, the construction industry has been challenged by the rapidly increasing population and the proportional demand in housing and construction material supply. Concurrently, excessive energy use, pollution and waste generated to produce traditional building materials impose severe environmental challenges. The diminution of natural resources and the growing recognition of climate change have been encouraging researchers and companies to seek sustainable alternatives to the currently used materials. A potential solution could be producing biomaterials using plant-based waste from industries.
Mycelium, the root structure of fungi, has recently become an increasingly more prominent research topic in finding sustainable alternatives in various industries. 3D printing, packaging, household appliances, textile and building industries have been exploring the adoption of mycelium for environmentally friendly production processes and end-products. The material has proven to offer a range of properties significant to the construction industry, from good acoustic properties to compressive strength, while being a renewable and low-carbon material with relatively good fire resistance. However, one of its major limitations is its low resistance to tension and bending. On the other hand, wood has been known for centuries for its tension resistance and high structural performance. Therefore, a wood-veneer-reinforced mycelium composite was developed to exploit the intrinsic qualities of each material and achieve improved mechanical properties.
Previous research has demonstrated wood veneer lattices’ positive influence on mycelium’s mechanical properties through small-scale prototypes and structural tests and provided an overview of the production process, quantitative testing, and potential advantages and impact of using this material as a sustainable building material alternative in the construction industry.
Building upon the latest findings, this research aims at upscaling these 100% bio-based mycelium-wood veneer composites to an architectural scale. The goal is to address the three main challenges that hinder the adoption of mycelium composites among building materials and investigate potential solutions in these areas: production framework development, reinforcement geometry prediction, and customizing large-scale composites for a wide range of use cases, respectively. Through this research, it is anticipated to approach the development of mycelium composites for architecture from a holistic point of view, and to take a step further in their design, fabrication and utilization in built spaces.