A young Indonesian company wants to change the construction industry. “Mycotech” is “growing” building materials from mushrooms, not least thanks to active scientific support from Switzerland. The flexible building material can be pressed into any shape.
A young Indonesian company wants to change the construction industry. “Mycotech” is “growing” building materials from mushrooms, not least thanks to active scientific support from Switzerland. The flexible building material can be pressed into any shape.
A small company has set up shop in the Indonesian city of Badung: the technology start-up Mycotech, which grows mushrooms instead of tea. Not for eating, however, but mushrooms that will eventually grow into houses.
The founders are architects who want to bring sustainability to the construction industry. They have been researching the mushroom-based building material since 2013 and officially became a company in 2015. Initially, they were supported by the Indonesian research center, where the first prototype of the material was created. They are now receiving help from renowned international universities, such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and the National University of Singapore.
The roots are there
Mycotech produces a building material that is based on agricultural waste and is combined with mushroom mycelium. The mycelium is a fine network in the soil, a kind of root system of fungi. “This makes our product 100 percent free of chemicals,” says Ronaldiaz Hartantyo, one of the company’s founders. The result is an amazingly flexible and pressure-resistant material that is durable, affordable, fireproof and water-repellent.
It takes about a month to produce the mycelium. To do this, the employees enrich sawdust with various nutrients to create an optimal breeding ground. In order for the spores to germinate, the mixture is filled into individual plastic bags together with mushroom spores, which are tightly sealed and stored in a cool, dark room. Before the spores sprout, the mixture with the formed mushroom roots is crushed, heated in the oven and finally hot-pressed into the desired shape.
According to the company founder, the material can be used to shape whatever you want.
The mushroom growers have already produced decorative tiles and furniture as well as bricks from the freely moldable material. The company is not yet producing the building material in series; it only manufactures it for specific projects. Larger modules such as wall insulation, panels and prefabricated walls are also planned.
At the moment, the Indonesian company is only using its new material for interior fittings, as tests in different climatic conditions are still pending. However, they dream of producing entire houses from the sustainable material at some point. Dirk Hebel, Professor of Sustainable Building at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, is convinced that sustainable building materials such as Mycotech will prevail in the future. The expert, who previously taught at ETH Zurich and supported the Indonesians in their work there, believes that “we will see a shift towards grown or cultivated building materials in the future”. The reason for this is that “resources for concrete are running out rapidly”. Sand is already in short supply in Germany. “Mushroom structures grow on biological waste, everywhere, without competing with food production, as no fields or soil are required for this,” says Hebel.
Trend towards renewable building materials
Other companies are also working with mushroom-based materials. For example, a company in the USA: New York-based Ecovative produces sustainable packaging material and also offers a home-grown version for creative minds at home.
