Living Tex’Celium: Exploring Sustainable Architectural Practices unique to Mycelium-Textile Composites

This research investigates the sustainable potential of MBCs in creating a fully recyclable building system, emphasizing their unique properties, including integration with natural-textiles, bio-welding, and onsite soft-fabrication. It explores textile jacketing & cultivation of mycelium in thin cross-sections to optimize growth by enhancing airflow & oxygen absorption. This integration offers greater flexibility in shaping components, enabling designers to digitally predict, control form & welding through a computational workflow. Textile jacketing enhances performance by facilitating efficient bio-welding through porous surface-to-surface overlaps, strengthening connection between units. Alternative physical testing & digital simulation establish a reliable digital twin, allowing for simulation of various aggregation strategies and corresponding structural performance. This process redefines conventional construction methods, presenting a compelling alternative to tolerance-based assemblies & standard joineries, uniquely suited to MBCs. The application is demonstrated through soft, flexible Tex’celium modules, fabricated in a controlled lab environment & designed for digitally guided, on-site (gravity-based) aggregation. As mycelium within components grows & bio-welds, it forms strong structural connections while maintaining shape post-curing. Findings are validated through a bridge cross-section, grown to a thickness of 12cm, clear span of 2m & an overall height of 0.7m. The cured demonstrator weighed 24kg and withstood a load of 108kg -4.5 times its self-weight without failure, underscoring its favorable load-bearing characteristics. Additionally, a process was developed to shred & regrow components into new composites within seven days, ensuring zero waste. This research thus establishes a novel building-system tailored to MBCs, based on their unique growth-based properties to advance sustainable architectural practices