Master's in Design for Emergent Futures: Research, Design Experiments, & Interventions

Mold
making
MYCELIUM
TETRIS
PHOTOS JULIA STEKETEE
NOVEMBER 2021 - DECEMBER 2021 | TERM 1
I created a series of molds made from vacuum
formed polystyrene. I recognize the irony of using a
petroleum based material to mold a natural material
but chose polystyrene because it is easy to clean
and allowed for rapid prototyping. Replacing the
plastic mold will be paramount when planning how
to scale this production process. In collaboration
with Roberto Broce, we filled the molds with the
pre-inoculated mycelium substate and let the
roots grow for 7 days. The image below shows the
mycelium substrate. We broke this up into a fine
dust in order to fill the molds. The mycelium grows
in the mold and serves as the glue in between the
sawdust particles.
26 MOLDING MYCELIUM