LIME MYCELIUM

My concept suggests that fungal mycelium and bacterial calcium carbonate create a composite material that can grow in random forms in industrial standards. It is lightweight, stable and one hundred percent biodegradable.

I propose that mycelium, which is a fibrous chitin structure usually growing in soil, could grow in air, if sufficient nutrients were supplied as a kind of fog and if it was being calcified while growing by the bacteria Bacillus pasteurii that live in symbiosis with the mycelium in order to give it stability. The growth itself could then be parametrically controlled by the direction and intensity of the nutrient fog.

First indications of symbiotically grown calcified mycelium show where this kind of technology could lead to: to a kind of computer-controlled growth of natural materials, without the need of tooling, leading to a production that is extremely versatile and to products that are not just biodegradable but highly adaptive.