Mycelia, a mushroom spawn producing company, asked me to design and prototype biodegradable acoustic panels made out of mycelium for their conference room. I did a thorough material research and extensive prototyping (within the facilities of Glimps cbva) to get to the end result. For the last phase of the prototyping I got a lot of help from Leon Deverick (from Mycelia), who helped me prepare and grow the panels within their well equipped professional facility.  

The entire process is consciously made open source so all of the biofabrication community could take advantage of my learnings. 

My entire design report is available on issuu. 

A few sketches from the project, used for communication on solutions with either the moulding company or the client.

A few handmade clay models to test grids and patterns, from which I could make good visual replications of the end result, from which in their turn I let the employees of the company chose their favorite. 

Material property testing: I tested a lot of different substrate mixtures, a few different mushroom spawns and heat press variables, mixed in some biobinders and gradually learnt a lot on what a good approach for my final product would be. 

Making of the first prototype: from 3D design to milling, sanding, drilling and vacuum forming a mould, to filling the mould with substrate and mushroom spawn and letting the mycelium consolidate the form.

The final result.

4 different kinds of mushrooms were used to produce the panels below. They provide a variety of colours from creamy white and grey-blue tones to red and brown. 

In April 2022 the Arc Nouvau panels were on display in Design Museum Gent during Design Fest Ghent.