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Mushroom Bricks Stronger than Concrete

Mushroom Bricks Stronger than Concrete
Mycologist Philip Ross is seriously into mushrooms, but not as a food -- instead, he uses fungi as a building material. Beneath the surface of the ground, fungi form a wide network of thin, rootlike fibers called mycelium. That part of the fungus isn't particularly tasty, but Ross discovered that when dried, it can be used to form a super-strong, water-, mold- and fire-resistant building material. The dried mycelium can be grown and formed into just about any shape, and it has a remarkable consistency that makes it stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. The 100% organic and compostable material has even piqued the interest of NYC's MoMa PS1, where the award-winning Hy-Fi Mushroom Tower pavilion is currently being built. We first discovered Ross’ unique mycelium material at The Workshop Residence in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood during the 2012 AIA SF‘s month-long Architecture and the City festival. Related: 3D-Printed Mycelium Chair Sprouts Living Mushrooms! + Philip Ross Related:  New Materials

Måla miljösmart och hälsosamt | Kloka Hem Vad är färg? Färger uppkallas vanligen efter sitt bindemedel, till exempel plastfärg, kalkfärg eller linoljefärg. Höstens färger från Pure & original. Varför inte vattenburen plastfärg? Den mest använda färgen idag är vattenburen plastfärg, latex/akrylatfärg. Ibland felaktigt kallad ”vattenbaserad färg”. • Den är petroleumbaserad. • Färgen innehåller miljö- och hälsoskadliga tillsatser som mjukgörare, konserveringsmedel, filmbildare, konsistensgivare, tensider och skumdämpare. • Färgen är statisk och drar åt sig smuts. Nanopartiklar ny fara? Nanopartiklar blir allt vanligare i produkter som färg och spackel. Fantastiska färger från Byta-yta av Malin Allbäck. Miljömärkta färger Många plastfärger är miljömärkta till exempel med EU-blomman eller Svanen. Farliga konserveringsmedel och bristande innehållsdeklarationer Hälsomässigt är tillsatserna värre än plasten. Plastfärgerna avger också ämnen till inomhusluften, framförallt de första månaderna efter målning. Vad kännetecknar en bra färg?

Bamboo Composites Bamboo Composites Steel is heavy, environmentally unfriendly and corrodes. Actually 70% of today's structural damage is due to corrosion of steel within reinforced concrete buildings. Steel is also not widely available in many developing countries. Enter the super-fast-growing grass - bamboo - renewable, carbon sequestering, lightweight, corrosion-free, stress-resistant and less expensive than steel. Bamboo grows with abandon throughout tropical and temperate zones. Concrete reinforced with bamboo composite rods. Dirk Hebel of Advanced Fibre Composite Laboratory at FCL in Singapore and Assistent Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich believes bamboo could replace steel in the not too distant future. The team is currently also testing the strength of concrete with bamboo composite mixed directly into the concrete. Resources: hebel.arch.ethz.ch sourceable.net

All-black house in Poland is clad in sustainably harvested durable ThermoWood | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building Here at Inhabitat, we're all about new advancements when it comes to design. That's why we are so excited about an interesting technology coming from Scandinavia called ThermoWood, a sustainably harvested, extremely durable type of timber manufactured in Finland. Design studio też architekci chose ThermoWood as cladding material for their new residential project in Poland, prompting Treehugger's Lloyd Alter to take a closer look at the product, which combines benefits of both hardwoods and softwoods and offers an interesting alternative to the often hazardous chemically treated wood. We’ve seen some great new developments in the field of sustainable cladding materials, like low maintenance softwood by Norwegian manufacturer Kebony and clever reclaimed Wabi Sabi. Related: How sustainable is wood? According to the company’s website, the manufacturing process for Thermowood includes three phases of heat treatment, and improves the stability and biological durability of wood. + ThermoWood

Creating 'Living' Buildings The University of Greenwich's School of Architecture & Construction is poised to use ethical synthetic biology to create 'living' materials that could be used to clad buildings and help combat the effects of climate change. Researchers from the University of Greenwich are collaborating with others at the University of Southern Denmark, University of Glasgow and University College London (UCL) to develop materials that could eventually produce water in desert environments or harvest sunlight to produce biofuels. In collaboration with an architectural practice and a building materials' manufacturer, the idea is to use protocells -- bubbles of oil in an aqueous fluid sensitive to light or different chemicals -- to fix carbon from the atmosphere or to create a coral-like skin, which could protect buildings. ''We want to use ethical synthetic biology to create large-scale, real world applications for buildings,'' he says.

Metabolic Materials as a Measure of Architectural Quality | By Rachel Armstrong Between the 1830’s to 1840’s, the modern public health movement was started in Britain when Edwin Chadwick, advocate for the Poor Law, brought his vision of public health through sanitarianism into being through public works. This ultimately resulted in the construction of modern day water and sewage systems that set standards of urban infrastructure throughout the developed world. Today we are facing a similar urban crisis of environment due to the consequences of living in industrial pollution for the last 150 years. Global warming is a symptom of technological progress coupled with environmental belligerence and is facilitated by the industrial practices of capitalism. Architecture is a technology of environments. The architectural Green movement proposes designs for a nostalgic, rather pantheistic, rural existence that is perceived to be more ‘healthy’ by bringing biology itself into the urban environment in the form of green walls, roofs and even farms.

Reclaimed Bark Siding & High-End Wall Paneling | Bark House Product Scorecard - Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Renewal date 19 June 2017 Manufacturer Description Mushroom® Materials are a bio-based alternative to expanded plastic foams and other materials. Ecovative Mushroom® Material Aerogel High-quality particulate silica aerogel enables best-in-class solutions for energy-efficient buildings and industrial infrastructure, safe-to-touch surfaces, personal care products and more. Aerogel, known as the “world’s best insulating solid material,” is used to enhance the thermal performance of energy-saving materials and sustainable products for buildings, on- and off-shore industrial infrastructure and consumer products, as well as acting as a high performance additive to coatings and personal care offerings. Our product line enables a wide range of product forms and applications, including: We are the global leader in producing high quality particulate silica aerogel. Best in thermal insulation. Upcoming Events European Coatings Show April 4-6, 2017 Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg, Germany Booth 1-418 in Hall 1 We will exhibit at this conference, which is the world-leading exhibition for paint and coatings. More Information > Solving Complex Challenges + More - Less

Innovative Window System by Vitrocsa Floor to ceiling windows are every designer’s dream and everyone living in a flat would enjoy such an abundance of light. Vitrocsa created an amazing and innovative system of floor to ceiling windows that can be installed in homes in order to create a panoramic view. The peculiarity of these windows is that they are a succession of panels that slide even around the corners. by Vitrocsa Mycelia + Sawdust = House? | Hackaday Take a guess. What is the featured picture for this article? If you’re channeling your inner Google image recognition, you might say: “Best guess for this image: rock.” But, like Google, you’d be wrong. Instead, what you see are bricks made out of fungi obtained from tissues of mycelia. By taking fungi obtained from tissues of mycelia and storing them in a jar filled with a growth medium (usually sawdust), MycoWorks is creating all sorts of materials with exciting properties. The resulting materials are buoyant, self-extinguishing and stress dissipating. Video after the break. Disclaimer: While this video seems to be from a collaboration with Mazda and includes some marketing, it is well done, and describes their idea well.

Mycologist Develops Fungi Bricks That Grow Stronger Than Concrete - TruthTheory By Eden Marie Truth Theory This mycologists figured out how to make bricks made from growing fungi that are super-strong and water-, mold- and fire resistant. To most people, mushrooms are a food source. To mycologist (mushroom scientist) Philip Ross, fungi are much, much more. Inhabitat reports that the 100% organic and compostable material is made from dried mycelium and then is grown and formed into just about any shape. During an interview with Glasstire, Ross explained: “It has the potential to be a substitute for many petroleum-based plastics. If furniture, bricks stronger than concrete and art can be created using mushrooms, what else might fungi be used for? IMAGE CREDIT: Phil Ross and The Workshop Residence. I am Luke Miller, content manager at Truth Theory and creator of Potential For Change.

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