Disgust, Dread, and Fear Tales of Working with Bio-Based Materials

Abstract

Bio-based materials have increasingly been considered in the built environment as design professionals recognise the impact of industrial extraction on environmental degradation. These materials offer a promising alternative by promoting emergent growth, contributing to a bio-circular economy that emphasises biodegradability and reduced energy consumption, while offering the hope of less waste and healthier material choices for interior spaces. Furthermore, bio-based materials suggest a shift in designers’ perspectives from an anthropocentric view to one that acknowledges the interconnectedness of living systems.

At the same time, the unplanned growth, decay and irregularities of bio-based materials not only challenge conventional aesthetics and expectations but can also evoke feelings of ickiness and apprehension.

This essay explores four projects with living materials — mycelium and moss — and the unplanned encounters that arose. One project explored hyphal growth in developing mycelium acoustic tiles and screens that highlighted mycelium’s surface variations. Another project involved placing a couple of identical mycelium-composite stools outdoors in three locations in Victoria, Australia. Over several months, they underwent a significant transformation, altering in colour and texture and attracting various creatures, including snails and microbes. Yet another project involved purchasing moss online, which unexpectedly brought an entire ecosystem into our home, with unwanted fungi, worms, and moths emerging. A final project revealed dust appearing beneath mycelium objects previously displayed at a furniture store and an art gallery, now stored at the university. What we initially thought was sawdust turned out to be countless tiny insects which, to our horror, had eaten their way through the mycelium.

These unplanned experiences underscore the paradoxical nature of biomaterials and raise some fundamental questions about them: can their qualities of growth and change hope to overcome wider societal tendencies that favour permanence and stasis in interiors, and can designers transform their sense of unease and dread of decay into a sense of interconnectedness with natural processes?