Growing materials #2

As mentioned in the previous post, I want to look at growing materials. I found a video of a student that experimented with some mycelium growth and in the end managed to develop a stool using existing products as starting points or as moulds. Now, it makes me wonder more about how could I use this technique to create my own designs? What mould do I need? What are they made of? And how to create the moulds responsibly? As the mycelium needs to be kept moist, the best option would be a plastic mould I presume as it keeps moisture well. If so, then, if the mould need to be made of plastic, it would be worth making them out of recycled plastics. This brings me to the Aberdonian local initiative Origin. In Origin, their main aim is to collect local plastic waste and recycle it in the specific locality, and on top of that, create new products from this recycled plastic. In my opinion, I see an opportunity of a circular production technique combining recycling and growing. Yet, of course, this needs testing and developing.

On the other hand, it could be argued that instead of creating new plastic moulds why not use industrially mass-produced plastic objects that have already been fabricated as an alternative? For instance, lunch boxes, storage boxes, buckets, pipes, pots, etc. Potentially, this could result in creating more of a modular design system which is bound to products that are either already in circulation or in disposal, thus reducing the amount of time and energy invested to create new specific moulds. But then would not this project be some sort of a 'parasite' living off of a linear economic system that induces more waste? Or would it make a difference since it would develop objects made in a certain locality made from re/up-cycled materials? Maybe the products of this kind of system should make use only of objects that have already been disposed of because then it would not invest any monetary value into an exploitative system but would use its waste or by-products that were originally meant to rot - only if they could. In conclusion, I believe that using objects that have been disposed of as a tool, but also combining it with recycled but newly made moulds would be a good circular model if successful.

What do you think?

For more information about Origin in Aberdeen visit www.originthat.com.

As an addition, here is a link to a brief Ted Talk about a designer making clothes out of a growing material and also another video talking about growing objects with fungi.