I stumbled upon this design today. This chair is a solid piece of mycelium that has been grown into the wooden legs. The seat rested on the mold with the outside edge completely exposed. This is the best image I could include since the images on the main post are protected, but you can find more here.
If I do end up making a mycelium and bamboo chair, a design similar to this seems like a possibility. This particular chair is just mid-century inspired, but the shapes of the wood component should be fairly simple to CNC mill, and I could grow two squares of mycelium instead of the cushions, which would only require a simple mold.
Other views of this exact chair can be found here.
The Noguchi Table, designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1945, is one of the most iconic mid-century furniture designs. It is so popular that both the original and many copies are still sold today.
I plan to base my coffee table design off of the Noguchi Table by growing a simplified version of the base components out of mycelium.
You can find more images on Herman Miller’s website here.
The Growing Pavilion is located in the Netherlands, and is constructed almost entirely of biomaterials. The goal of the project is to create a structure with the lowest CO2 emissions possible. The walls are made of mycelium and coated in a sustainably sourced resin. You can read more about it on New Company Hero’s website. There are also some nice images in this Dezeen article.
While beginning the design process for my chair, I started looking at mid-century modern furniture, since that is when plastics and mass-produced furniture really started. I want to recreate a design using the mycelium and bamboo, so I was looking for something simple and small enough to fit in the kilns at school.
Charles and Ray Eames were really big in mid-century furniture. They designed many of the pieces we still associate with the design style today, and Herman Miller still produces many of their popular designs. One of their most iconic designs is the fiberglass armchair, which was also available as a side chair without the arms. The formed fiberglass seat was dangerous to produce, so it was switched to plastic, only to be brought back by Herman Miller after they found a safer manufacturing method. The chairs can still be purchased from Herman Miller, and are available with upholstery, as well as different base options.
You can take a look at some more photos of the chairs on Herman Miller’s website here.
Mycotech is an Indonesia-based mycelium startup that makes mylea (mycelium leather), biobo (mycelium boards), and the mycotree (a demonstration of how mycelium and bamboo can be used in architecture).
I can’t post any images since they are protected, but their website can be accessed at https://www.mycote.ch/
Krown Designs sells mycelium supplies in Europe, as well as selling their own mycelium furniture, lamps, and accessories.
This video showcases a 3d printed chair that was made using PLA (polylactic acid), a bioplastic, that they 3d printed in hollow pieces and filled with mycelium. They did not kill the fungus, so the mycelium strengthened the piece and continued to grow, resulting in the formation of mushrooms.
I found this architecture dissertation project where the student tried making the mycelium mixture. They ended up purchasing it, and used a plastic IKEA chair as a mold to grow a chair fully out of mycelium. Since it was just dried out, the fungus is not dead, so if it gets wet mushrooms might sprout.
The student has a full write up available here
