Eric Klarenbeek has designed a 3D-printed chair that’s made with living fungus. Created in conjunction with the University of Wageningen for Dutch Design Week 2013, the chair concept is made by mixing water, powdered straw, and mycelium, the threadlike vegetative part of fungus. That mixture is then coated with a thin layer of bioplastic, and as the mixture dries and the mycelium grows, it creates what’s described as a solid but light material. While the chair is just a concept at present, Klarenbeek — a self-described “designer of the unusual” — sees a future where the material is used widely. “It could be a table, a whole interior, or even a house,” he told Dezeen. “We could build a house with it.”
via The Verge
