We really feel a rising ardour for MycoWorks, the corporate inspiring magnificence with fungal-based biomaterial

The recognition of mycelium as a biomaterial ripe for exploratory software continued apace in 2024. From luxurious homes to pupil exhibits, from packaging and clothes to constructing supplies, it looks like our future could be fungal. Whereas the self-growing, biodegradable materials has fascinating prospects for options at scale, the undertaking that stopped us in our tracks this yr was outstanding for its sheer wonderment.

San Francisco-based biotech firm MycoWorks was based in 2013 by sculptor Philip Ross and artist-poet Sophia Wang with a mission to develop mycelium into supplies that encourage manufacturers, designers and artists. In collaboration with design company Paragone, MycoWorks put its newest patented mycelium spinoff, Reishi, into the palms of seven feminine artists and designers, whose works had been unveiled in a present, titled ‘Mycelium Muse’, on the inaugural Design Miami/Paris in October.

The ‘Mycelium Muse’ assortment

Reishi has a malleable texture between leather-based and textile, which could be dyed and embossed, and the ensuing furnishings, lighting and artworks had been beautiful expressions of earthy, ethereal and elemental intrigue. One million miles away from the mildly tumorous, spongy mulch that mycelium brings to thoughts, Reishi is a fabric of thrilling potential and excellent magnificence. And, lest we neglect, magnificence is seductive, and nothing propels a market ahead sooner than love.