At the Royal Danish Academy's ‘Imagining Futures through Architecture and Design’ exhibition, Phil Ayres and his collaborators presented Fungateria — a project that explored the use of mycelium to create engineered living materials that remain biologically active after being transformed into products.
Mycelium is the root-like structure of fungi. Phil Ayres’ project seeks to embed the radical functionalities of this organic matter— including its abilities of self-regeneration, self-healing, and environmental adaptation — into the design of products. Fungateria ultimately shifts the focus away from a human-first design process toward one that attends to the material's own needs for healthy living conditions. This challenges the assumption that products should be as inert and low-maintenance as possible, instead suggesting that a healthy relationship between user and object might involve tending to the material. Hence, the classification of the innovation as engineered living materials is appropriate here.
Phil Ayres’ Fungateria research and prototypes will likely be of interest to a plethora of industries.
Mycelium-Inspired Engineered Living Materials
Phil Ayres and Collaborators Present Fungateria
Trend Themes
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Living Materials Integration — Materials that remain biologically active within end products open pathways for structures and surfaces that self-regenerate and adapt to environmental stressors.
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Bio-responsive Product Design — Design approaches that prioritize the needs of living substrates suggest products could dynamically change form, function, or performance in response to biological feedback.
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Care-oriented Consumption — A shift toward products requiring ongoing tending reframes ownership as a reciprocal relationship, creating demand for goods that age, heal, and evolve rather than remain inert.
Industry Implications
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Construction and Architecture — Building components made from engineered living materials could enable self-repairing facades and climate-adaptive insulation that reduce lifecycle maintenance.
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Consumer Electronics — Embedding living substrates into device casings and interfaces could lead to casings that heal minor damage and modulate thermal or acoustic properties over time.
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Textiles and Fashion — Garments and soft goods incorporating mycelium-based materials may develop responsive textures and biodegrade on tailored schedules, altering supply chain and end-of-life models.