Bio-Modules:Mycelium-Based Composites Forming a Modular Interlocking System through a Computational Design towards Sustainable Architecture

In a resource-constrained world, raising awareness about the development of eco-friendly alternative materials is critical for ensuring a more sustainable future. Mycelium-based composites (MBC) and their diverse applications are gaining popularity as regenerative, biodegradable, and lightweight alternatives. This research aims to broaden the design potentials of MBC in order to construct advanced systems towards a novel material culture in architecture. The proposed design method intends to explore the design and fabrication of small-scale components of MBC to be applied in modular systems. Mycelium-based modular components are being developed to fulfill the geometrical requirements that allow for the creation of a lightweight system without additional reinforcement. The modules are linked together using an interlocking system. Through computational design and form-finding methods, various arrangements of the modules are achieved. An initial prototype of five modules is created to demonstrate the ability of the system to form various geometrical configurations as a result of the used workflow. The proposed application aims to expand the scope of the use of mycelium-based composites in modular systems and to promote architectural applications using bio-based composite materials

Mycomerge: Fabrication of Mycelium-Based Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites on a Rattan Framework

There is an essential need for a change in the way we build our physical environment. To prevent our ecosystems from collapsing, raising awareness of already available bio-based materials is vital. Mycelium, a living fungal organism, has the potential to replace conventional materials, having the ability to act as a binding agent of various natural fibers, such as hemp, flax, or other agricultural waste products. This study aims to showcase mycelium’s load-bearing capacities when reinforced with bio-based materials and specifically natural fibers, in an alternative merging design approach. Counteracting the usual fabrication techniques, the proposed design method aims to guide mycelium’s growth on a natural rattan framework that serves as a supportive structure for the mycelium substrate and its fiber reinforcement. The rattan skeleton is integrated into the finished composite product, where both components merge, forming a fully biodegradable unit. Using digital form-finding tools, the geometry of a compressive structure is computed. The occurring multi-layer biobased component can support a load beyond 20 times its own weight. An initial physical prototype in furniture scale is realized. Further applications in architectural scale are studied and proposed

Biomimicry as a Sustainable Design Methodology—Introducing the ‘Biomimicry for Sustainability’ Framework

Biomimicry is an interdisciplinary approach to study and transfer principles or mechanisms from nature to solve design challenges, frequently differentiated from other design disciplines by its particular focus on and promise of sustainability. However, in the biomimicry and biologically inspired design literature, there are varying interpretations of how and whether biomimetic designs lead to sustainable outcomes and how sustainability, nature, and mimesis are conceptualised and engaged in practice. This paper takes a particular focus on the built environment and presents a theoretical overview of biomimicry literature spanning across specific fields, namely architecture, philosophy, sustainability and design. We develop upon conceptual considerations in an effort to contribute to the growing calls in the literature for more reflective discussions about the nuanced relationship between biomimicry and sustainability. We further develop a ‘Biomimicry for Sustainability’ framework that synthesises recent reflective deliberations, as a possible direction for further theorisation of biomimicry, aiming to elaborate on the role of biomimicry as a sustainable design methodology and its potential to cultivate more sustainable human–nature relations. The framework is used as a tool for retrospective analysis, based on literature of completed designs, and as a catalyst for biomimetic design thinking. The objective of this paper is to serve as a point of departure for more active and deeper discussions regarding future biomimetic practice in the context of sustainability and transformational change, particularly within the built environment

Natural Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites (NFRP) Fabricated from Lignocellulosic Fibres for Future Sustainable Architectural Applications, Case Studies: Segmented-Shell Construction, Acoustic Panels, and Furniture

Due to the high amounts of waste generated from the building industry field, it has become essential to search for renewable building materials to be applied in wider and more innovative methods in architecture. One of the materials with the highest potential in this area is natural fibre-reinforced polymers (NFRP), which are also called biocomposites, and are filled or reinforced with annually renewable lignocellulosic fibres. This would permit variable closed material cycles’ scenarios and should decrease the amounts of waste generated in the building industry. Throughout this paper, this discussion will be illustrated through a number of developments and 1:1 mockups fabricated from newly developed lignocellulosic-based biocomposites from both bio-based and non-bio-based thermoplastic and thermoset polymers. Recyclability, closed materials cycles, and design variations with diverse digital fabrication technologies will be discussed in each case. The mock-ups’ concepts, materials’ compositions, and fabrication methods are illustrated. In the first case study, a structural segmented shell construction is developed and constructed. In the second case study, acoustic panels were developed. The final case studies are two types of furniture, where each is developed from a different lignocellulosic-based biocomposite. All of the presented case studies show diverse architectural design possibilities, structural abilities, and physical building characteristics

‘Materials as a Design Tool’ Design Philosophy Applied in Three Innovative Research Pavilions Out of Sustainable Building Materials with Controlled End-Of-Life Scenarios

Choosing building materials is usually the stage that follows design in the architectural design process, and is rarely used as a main input and driver for the design of the whole building’s geometries or structures. As an approach to have control over the environmental impact of the applied building materials and their after-use scenarios, an approach has been initiated by the author through a series of research studies, architectural built prototypes, and green material developments. This paper illustrates how sustainable building materials can be a main input in the design process, and how digital fabrication technologies can enable variable controlling strategies over the green materials’ properties, enabling adjustable innovative building spaces with new architectural typologies, aesthetic values, and controlled martial life cycles. Through this, a new type of design philosophy by means of applying sustainable building materials with closed life cycles is created. In this paper, three case studies of research pavilions are illustrated. The pavilions were prefabricated and constructed from newly developed sustainable building materials. The applied materials varied between structural and non-structural building materials, where each had a controlled end-of-life scenario. The application of the bio-based building materials was set as an initial design phase, and the architects here participated within two disciplines: once as designers, and additionally as green building material developers. In all three case studies, Design for Deconstruction (DfD) strategies were applied in different manners, encouraging architects to further follow such suggested approaches