Someday, you may live in a mushroom house.
It has been estimated that 40 percent of carbon emissions in the USA are related to the construction industry (at least I read this someplace; I have no idea what the ultimate source of information was--in any event, it cannot be gainsaid that the construction industry does produce a lot of emissions). Architect David Benjamin instead works on a building material which produces no carbon emissions in its manufacture--a material that resists water, mold, fire, and is stronger than concrete. It is also biodegradable (although hopefully not too rapidly biodegradable, if you are making a building out of it). The formula is simple. Add to a brick mold some corn husks, mycelium (a/k/a the vegetative part of fungus), and maybe a little hemp, and then let it set for about five days. The mycelium grows and knots everything together in a very strong, but lightweight, brick.
No doubt there will have to be further research and testing done before local building codes are amended to allow for houses to be made out of fungus (after all, might not the homes be at risk of attack by hordes of hungry boars?). However, the MoMA PS1 art museum in New York in 2014 provided a possible glimpse of the future in when it displayed a forty-foot tall tower made of 10,000 of these bricks.
No comments:
Post a Comment