Our concept places mushrooms and mushroom materials as active agents at the centre of a debate about future ways of building and living. In a spatial sculpture made of fungal materials, MY-CO PLACE, visitors are brought into direct contact with the microscopically small but macroscopically tangible world of mycology. MY-CO PLACE will be used as a learning station and exhibition space during the exhibition period. Future life and living with and through fungi can thus be experienced, thought through and understood. The room envelopes consist of mushroom mycelium elements that are designed with the help of digital form-finding processes adapted to the load-bearing properties of mushroom materials. The mycelium elements are produced with the help of a regionally available fungus, the tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius, and biotechnological cultivation methods on plant residues from Berlin-Brandenburg’s agricultural and forestry sector. The cultivation process in the laboratory allows the production of strong, stable but very light composite materials – a fungus-plant composite is created. Once this biomaterial has reached sufficient strength, they are assembled on site to form MY-CO PLACE. The interlocking geometry of the overall structure allows individual elements to be removed as openings.

Thematic approaches:
#Building methods #ProductiveCity #CircularCity

Spatial approaches:
#Buildings #PublicSpace #Modular

Methodological approaches:
#Co-Design

Kontakt: TU Berlin (FG Applied and Molecular Microbiology) – Prof. Vera Meyer + UdK Berlin (FG Digital and Experimental Design) – Prof. Sven Pfeiffer

Pic 1 and 2: Vault made of mushroom materials. Photo: A. Anguelo

Subdivision of the shell into hexagonal components.