MYCOlullose: Fabricating Biohybrid Material System with Mycelium-Based Composites and Bacterial Cellulose

In an attempt to become more sustainable, architects have increasingly begun employing biomaterials in design practices. The current ethos merely considers biomaterials as an eco-friendly substitute for conventional solutions. This paper attempts to elevate the benefit of using biomaterials by creating and evaluating a hybrid material formed as a result of collaboration between living organisms of mycelium, and by-product of kombucha brewing, SCOBY bacterial cellulose. The fabricated artefact provides an example whereby a combination of distinct living organisms in a complimentary fashion holds potential for the discovery of previously unimagined goals, new value systems, qualities and speculative applications that can embrace this discovered affordance. The hybrid assemblage, explored through a material-driven approach, demonstrates that mycelium can effectively grow within the cellulose produced by bacteria, where mycelium is a structural, bulk element and bacterial cellulose is a sacrificial mold hosting the growth and gradually being integrated within the fungal skin. The manufacturing methodology used principles of fabric forming fabrication as a primary technique to create geometrical expressions, by translating 2D sewn bacterial cellulose membranes, into 3D structures with mycelium composite filling. The resulting hybridised biomaterial system with augmented characteristics combines complementary properties such as mechanical strength of BC performing well in tension and the mycelium-based composites in compression.