Following Natural Material Rhythms
Chapter 2: Growing
This is the second of 3 articles in the series. You can read part 1 here and part 3 here.
How can the unpredictability and beauty of nature’s rhythms help us bridge the gap between the forest and the factory? How can we use the temporalities of active matter to reimagine how we make and own products? In the second article of our speculative series (Read part 1 here), our Innovator in Residence, Elena Maldonado Suarez, documents her research journey through the growth of mycelium, and shares the key lessons that the behaviour of mycelial networks could teach us about designing more symbiotic industrial ecosystems.
1. Design for looped cycles
In a forest ecosystem, mycelium lives underground, interacting with bacteria, roots, rocks, soil — every living and non-living organism. Its capacity to continuously cycle nutrients and regenerate its substrates means its growth is open-ended and ever-evolving. Rather than diminishing its resources, it supports the generation of life across its network. By shifting to models of interconnectedness and nutrient recycling we too can uncouple yield from extraction, creating a thriving industrial ecosystem capable of producing resources indefinitely.
EXPERIMENT 1
To test the viability of a regenerative model on a human scale, we used mycelium to conduct several process experiments. We started by working in a controlled, sterile laboratory environment and selecting a mushroom to clone within it. The mushroom tissue was then transferred to a petri dish with a comfortable, nutritious bed of agar-agar, where the mycelium began to grow. One week later, the mycelium strain was ready and could be infused to create grain spawn. Once the grains were successfully inoculated they could be transferred to larger substrates.
Here the substrate selection is crucial as it determines the nutrients we provide to the organisms. While the substrate doesn’t always need to be organic, for our experiment it was important to us to start with fully biodegradable solutions, such as discarded coffee grounds from a local coffee shop. These substrates require sterilisation or pasteurisation, using heat to eliminate the harmful bacteria that compete with the mycelium for space. By using mycelium-infused local substrates to continuously clone and inoculate new ones, we were able to maintain an ongoing loop of mycelium growth. And, while the colonised substrate served as a foundation for material research, it also yielded delicious mushrooms that we were able to harvest and cook in our studio kitchen before returning the substrate to our garden as compost, thus completing a full circle of resource use.
How can we integrate open-ended manufacturing processes that use their material, their energy, and their creative and atmospheric inputs to propagate new and renewing feedstock?
2. Relativise time scales
Looking through the microscope can fundamentally shift our understanding of time. As one transitions through different magnitudes of scale one engages with different, co-existent temporalities. Ephemeral organisms within ongoing ecosystems, slow growth and fleeting flowering. Through working with organic, active materials, we can both challenge how we work with resources and how we expect them to work for us. Rather than making production and ownership conform to our time schedules, following asynchronous, natural growth gives each product space to flourish, evolve and decompose, and can turn us from production and product owners into material stewards.
EXPERIMENT 2
Once our substrate was fully inoculated with mycelium, we decided to continue exploring non-sterile and open environments in our studio.
We watched as the mycelium ate all the nutrients within its initial container, and our studio’s living substrate transformed into mushrooms, mycelium’s fruit, creating a new living form. In human terms of time and scale, mushrooms have a short life-cycle, emerging and decaying within a matter of days or weeks, but they also need their time, they slowly grow again after a first harvest as their energy needs to be regenerated. If we shift to a micro-perspective, it reveals the hidden complexity of ephemeral entangled spores that provide structures to support other mushroom cups. This experience forces us to deal with the varied lifespan of materials, which reorganise themselves over time.
How can we reimagine our units of production time to give space for natural growth, optimisation and incidental innovation? How can we reframe consumer behaviour around permanent versus temporary needs and promote acceptance of impermanent products?
Rather than making production and ownership conform to our time schedules, following asynchronous, natural growth gives each product space to flourish, evolve and decompose, and can turn us from production and product owners into material stewards.
3. Embrace disruption
Disturbance forms an inevitable part of the planetary experience. It is also key to testing the vulnerability, and by extension, resilience of a system. Any disruption of balance challenges our natural inclination to thrive. In its own pursuit of equilibrium, mycelium persistently searches for opportunities to find sustenance and reinforce its network, adapting to new substrates, growing in, with or around obstacles. This responsiveness in the wake of disturbance, gives it a unique ability to renew and recover from damage, to heal new substrates, and evolve. Instead of avoiding disturbance, we need to be able to adapt to changing conditions with flexible processes but also how we define and measure our output.
EXPERIMENT 3
Since we started exploring how to grow mycelium in our studio, our senses started realizing the insects entering the room, the noises from the garden and the soil smells. Surrounded by big windows and white walls, the behavior of living mycelium blocks drying next to each other was characterized by a natural adherence, creating natural bonded structures.
There is an inherent resilience in its relentless search for sustenance, substrate, food. The bodies of the mycelium-based blocks were naturally attracted to each other, showcasing their need and ability to unify to maintain vitality. Additionally, the mycelium didn’t only bond with organic materials but also with synthetic residues, “gluing” them together. By incorporating human-made materials, we could observe how the mycelium bridged the gap between the natural and the artificial, a form of ecological intelligence where mycelium colonizes to sustain its own growth. These adaptive strategies could be seen in the examples that incorporated inorganic materials such as cardboard. Despite being confined, the mycelium thrived within cardboard, perpetually seeking new growth opportunities.
How can we automate intelligent processes that embrace precarity and adapt to disturbance? Can the ecological intelligence that drives regeneration heal the impact of human activities?
4. Empower interdependent autonomies
Mycelia, the white, thread-like filaments made of hyphae, create an invisible architecture that intuitively maximise nutrient absorption and expansion through new substrates. Neither an animal nor a plant, neither singular nor plural, mycelium’s interconnectedness and dependency makes it an organism that is autonomous but that cannot be understood in isolation. By replicating mutualistic structures that are able to self-organise, we enable a system that automatically identifies and pursues optimal spatial distribution and resource allocation.
EXPERIMENT 4
Watching how the mycelium transformed into mushrooms, we saw how not only the substrate was characterised by its agency, but also how the space was an assemblage, an active agent where the spatial configuration was adapted to the needs of the mushrooms, guiding its growth through our environment and challenging our sense of control over our built environment.
The mycelium’s ability to autonomously manage its distribution and nutrients inspired us to experiment with different containers and blocks to drive its growth. In our experiments, the mycelium colonised the solid blocks, growing through and around the material, always searching for air to breathe and optimising its spatial distribution within the blocks to ensure maximum strength and stability. This growth created a natural, invisible architecture within the blocks, enhancing their structural integrity. As the mycelium spread, it efficiently allocated resources to reinforce the block’s composition, directing energy where it is needed most for growth, reproduction, and defence. This approach not only solidified the blocks but also allowed for continuous adaptation and optimisation.
How can industrial landscapes integrate self-organising capabilities for efficient growth of building materials and processes?
Mycelium as a model
By growing mycelium in different substances and using the resulting substrates in a dual manner, we discover that mycelia networks are highly adaptive, responding to changing environmental conditions by altering their growth patterns and metabolic processes. Mycelial networks are sensors, they respond to our environment as we too adapt to its conditions, working collaboratively within the given space. Its interdependence highlights the blend of constructed and natural elements, human presence and the environment, and indoor and outdoor spaces, emphasising the responsiveness required for harmonious coexistence.
The principles of simplicity, material-centric perspectives, and the interplay between control and spontaneity converge to shape symbiotic aesthetic forces that work harmoniously with design. Allowing the mycelium to flourish in its natural state; mushrooms popping up unexpectedly; accepting the surprises they bring.
Their cycle of growth and decay teaches us to appreciate the ephemeral nature of mycelium-based materials, which are designed to decompose and transform back into the earth. Storing mycelium in our studio, growing it around the office, or even using its fruits in our meals, is to envision a shift in our perception, integrating living materials into our daily routines and viewing them as a vital part of our environment. This normalisation could usher in a broader change in human attitudes towards nonhumans, and a more flexible, integrated view of the material world.
Research, writing and visuals by Elena Maldonado Suárez for PCH Innovations. Currently, Elena’s residency includes her collaboration with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, a project for the Bauhaus Study Rooms and the Festival Osten, where she presented a workshop: Thinking like a Forest; Co-Designing with Mycelium. Contact her to find out more about her research.
PCH Innovations is a Berlin-based, creative engineering studio for exploratory technology and innovation strategy. Do you have an experiment you’d like to run? Get in touch! We are always looking for new challenges to take on and talents to collaborate with.
