A future where sustainable and self-repairing homes are built with engineered living materials (ELMs) got a little closer to being realized thanks to a promising new study.
CNN reported that researchers in Montana succeeded in growing mycelium as a scaffold for biomineralized ELMs. Mycelium acts like the root of a fungus, consisting of a dense network of interwoven threads under the soil. In the wild, it fulfills a vital ecological role, facilitating decomposition, nutrient absorption, and even creating networks between plants.
Those fast-growing threads have truly wondrous possibilities for future research and applications. As Scientific American noted, it could be used for just about anything from packaging to clothing and could even make lab-grown meat a reality. It's already being worked on for packaging, so it's not really that far-fetched to imagine it as a building material.
Biomineralization is the process by which living organisms produce minerals; it's how we grow teeth and bones via the mineralization of collagen. That's essentially what the research team achieved: adding a bacterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii, that can produce calcium carbonate. It makes the spongy material into a much sturdier structure. So when realtors of the future say a property has "good bones," they might mean it literally.
Construction has an enormous pollution output, and the research could offer a much more sustainable alternative to cement. As the CNN article pointed out, cement accounts for 8% of the world's planet-heating pollution, but the issues don't end there. When a building is demolished, it produces a vast amount of waste, and almost all of it is just discarded at the nearest landfill. The U.S. produces over 600 million tons of construction and demolition waste every year, which is twice the amount of solid municipal waste.
There's still a long road ahead before we'll realistically see the first mycelium buildings, but the study's lead author, Chelsea Heveran, is optimistic: "It might be a lot cheaper when you're trying to build infrastructure for a community that really needs it, or if you're trying to build infrastructure in space … the possibilities are really exciting to me."
Until that first fungal house goes on the market, there are ways to make your own home more sustainable and cost-effective through weatherization and using smart technology.
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