Mycotectonics: Building with Fungal Mycelium

  mycotectonics  

Master's Course Architecture Project M1

According to a report of the DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council), the construction industry is responsible for: 30% of global CO² emissions, 40% of energy consumption in Europe, and 30% of resource consumption worldwide. Furthermore, 80-90% of these resources are used in buildings’ load-bearing structures. That is why we as architects and engineers can reduce this impact by applying our know-how in smart designs. This M1 course aims to design architectural projects with mycelium composite building elements.  

Mycelium composites are novel, cheap, and environmentally sustainable materials with great expectations for its application in the construction industry. These materials apply bio-fabrication of natural fungal growth to upcycle lignocellulosic by-products of the industry into sustainable alternatives to traditional construction materials. Among their properties, we propose to focus on the customization capacity. The students will be asked to design their own building modules and correspondent joinery to apply them in their architectural projects. Aligned with this task the students will be challenged to analyze the principles of structural morphology within these novel materials, prototype a formwork, produce building modules and joinery, and critically apply them to a bottom-up design.

Objectives:

  • Application of building mycelium composites in architectural projects
  • Understanding of principles of structural morphology of mycelium composites
  • Design and Prototype mycelium composite building modules and joinery
  • Critically apply mycelium composite building modules to a bottom-up design process
  • Design of site-specific architecture with the acquired knowledge

 

Application: RWTHonline

Start: Tuesday, 13.04.2021

Meetings: Tuesdays, likely 14:00 - 17:00

Final Submission/Evaluation: Tuesday, 03.08.2021, 14:00 - ca. 17:00

Tutors:  Dana Saez M.Sc. & Denis Grizmann M.Sc.

Examiner: Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Trautz