[South Korea Seoul] Furniture Made from Mushrooms and Bacteria?

Editor's Note

This editor’s note highlights the key facts and market implications behind “Furniture Made from Mushrooms and Bacteria?”, with emphasis on sourcing, product fit, fabrication, logistics, or buyer impact.

For those who choose organic food for safety reasons, the chemicals in furniture can also be a concern. There is good news for such people. Furniture made 100% from living organisms has been developed and is now on sale.

More Eco-Friendly Than Solid Wood

At first glance, this furniture looks like a white stool or a marble table, but it is made solely from mushrooms and microorganisms. This so-called mushroom furniture is a collaboration between New York-based Evocative and North Carolina-based bioMASON.

Evon Bayer, CEO of Evocative, explained to the popular science magazine 'Popular Science', "We reprocess biological organic waste and sell it as furniture." This represents a creative use of waste organic matter, such as barley residue discarded during beer brewing.

The key lies in the mycelium, which corresponds to the root part of the mushroom. Mushrooms are known for their vigorous reproductive power because mycelium adheres well to any type of object, helping the mushroom grow easily. Bayer applied this characteristic to furniture. After creating table legs from wood chips left after logging or hemp pulp, mycelium is attached to their surface. Once the mushroom absorbs all the nutrients from the agricultural waste-made leg, it dies and hardens. Applying heat and pressure then creates a hard composite board similar to particleboard. The tabletop, which looks like marble, is made from bacteria. It uses bacteria that create calcium carbonate between sand grains. This bacterium creates coral reefs or seashells on the beach through chemical reactions, and the same principle is applied to making table tops. The advantage of this furniture made from living organic matter is that it can be customized. Mycelium is a very flexible material, so it grows differently depending on the shape of the leg it attaches to. It is also possible to change its shape by adjusting temperature or humidity.

The same applies to the table made from bacteria. By adjusting the size of the sand grains, temperature, pH level, etc., not only the size of the tabletop but also its hardness can be controlled.

Various Applications of Mycelium

It takes about a week to produce furniture made from mushrooms and seashell bacteria. The price is 285,400 won ($250) for a stool and 798,000 won ($699) for a table. Currently, in addition to furniture, outdoor tile production has been completed, and plans to use mycelium foam instead of Styrofoam packaging are under discussion. Intern reporter Lee Jae-eun [email protected]

Source: Read the original article | Published: March 03, 2017