Aalto University, Espoo, 2019
Biomateriality course
Fungi is a living organism that has a filamentous root system called mycelium and fruiting bodies called mushrooms.
During this course, I studied the process of cultivating fungi and learned the biological processes and differences of various fungi species. We learned how to work in a clean space to take samples from fungi to grow them on a petri dish in an agar-agar nutrition solution.
The one role of fungi in the ecosystem is to decompose for example cellulose and lignin and with that knowledge, we were able to make experiments with mycelium and other materials like fabrics, PLA plastics, and clay.
At the end of the course, I finished a lampshade to demonstrate how this mycelium composite could be seen as a material in our everyday environment.
Oyster mushroom
Re-plating mycelium sample
Mycelium growth on a petridish
Hyphae under the microscope
Growing on substrate
Growing in the mold
De-molding
Dried in 60 Celsius degree