MycoDwelling
Design Research Studio | Fall 2021 | Penn State University
Course Description
Myco-Dwelling is a Design Research Studio focusing on the interplay of matter, form and fabrication in the design of customizable accessory dwelling unit (ADU) systems using actual mycelium-based building components. In the studio, the students worked in teams to develop customizable accessory dwelling unit (ADU) systems with lightweight and biodegradable mycelium-based building components. The students explored and tested their design ideas by cultivating physical (mycelium-based) prototypes in various scales and by integrating computational form-finding and fabrication technologies to the design process. The main focuses in the studio were 1) on the analysis, synthesis and generation of systems for customizable dwelling/housing units, and 2) on the interplay between mycelium-matter, form and fabrication processes. Through weekly lectures, hands-on trainings and tutorials, the studio introduced the students to the basics of cultivating mycelium-based architectural components, computational and systematic design thinking, material computation, and the use of generative design and advanced digital fabrication techniques in design.
Instructors: Benay Gursoy; TA: Ali Ghazvinian
Student Work
The following project by students Brad Feitl (2nd-year M.Arch), Katie Bair (4th-year B.Arch), and Quaid Spicher (4th-year, B.Arch) has been shortlisted as a finalist in the International MICROHOME 2021 architecture competition.
“Mush•Room” is a modular, customizable, and transportable home designed to accommodate two young researchers. The house's north façade is a vertical mushroom farm. In addition to providing food, the vertical farm can be used to cultivate modular mycelium-based wall and floor panels, which fit within the modules of the structural frames of the house.