Faculty of Design

Industrial Design

Willem Tauveron

MYCÖ - Growing the Future

This project focused on how one could provide adaptability and space saving solutions to micro apartments in highly populated cities. This goal looks to remedy the negative effects brought on by increasing urbanization often resulting in smaller living spaces for lower income users. For this reason, the central component to this project revolves around the use and application of Mycelium as a product material, and its potential in the industry. The process of using lab cultivated Mycelium, grown into specialized molds allows components to be extremely light and structurally sound while being cost effective and completely biodegradable, providing an innovative approach to furniture design.

“Your entire apartment - in a single product.By merging bio-tech with product design, we are taking a positive step into the future. In this application, the use of Mycelium as a design material plays a pivotal role in the product solution. This "super material" is both beautifully simple and amazingly complex. Mycelium, which is the root system of a fungi, makes up 90 percent of the MYCO product as the main block like component. Mycelium was chosen as a material for its ability to feed off of low value materials, its complex strength and structure, its cost effectiveness and its ability to be completely biodegradable. Working with this material along with a plant based polymer for the connectors, MYCO offers an innovative and sustainable solution to mass produced furniture. Along with the unconventional materiality, the design of MYCO also offers a novel furnishing solution. As MYCO is meant for micro apartments, its highly important for the design to be space saving. For this reason, the product - which begins as a shelf is an all-in-one solution. Each individual brick, flat on one side features a purpose on the other from floor seating, coffee tables, lighting and dividers. When needed, a block can be removed from the shelf and accommodate the user differently. This solution allows the majority of ones apartment to fit into a single shelf when it needs to, allowing for extreme adaptability in tight spaces. ”