Are Mushrooms Parametric?

HBBE Researchers published a paper in the Special Issue Fungal Architectures about using fungi as a biomaterial probe to experiment with the parametric behavior of living systems.

Authors:  Dilan Ozkan ^1,*, Ruth Morrow ¹, Meng Zhang ² and Martyn Dade-Robertson¹

1 School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

²Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK

^*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editors: Andrew Adamatzky, Han A. B. Wösten and Phil AyresBiomimetics2022, 7(2), 60;

Abstract

Designing with biological materials as a burgeoning approach in the architecture field requires the development of new design strategies and fabrication methods. In this paper, we question if designers can use a parametric design approach while working with living materials. The research uses fungi as a biomaterial probe to experiment with the parametric behavior of living systems. Running design experiments using fungi helps to understand the extent to which biological systems can be considered parametric and, if so, what kind of parametric systems they are. Answering these questions provides a method to work with complex biological systems and may lead to new approaches of fabricating materials by tuning the environmental parameters of biological growth.

The full publication can be found here.