Dr Jane Scott (HBBE, Living Textiles) describes the potential for mycelium materials to revolutionize sustainable manufacturing and create a future with no waste: https://www.re-tv.org/articles/jane-scott

Creative Central NCL is supporting a new artistic commission in partnership with The Coach House and HBBE.

The Coach House, a historic brick building near Charlotte Square in Newcastle, is undergoing a creative transformation by architects MawsonKerr. As part of The Late Shows 2025, it will become home to an innovative living bio-sculpture, developed by the HBBE Living Textiles group which will merge knitted textiles and mycelium composite to create a unique, large-scale, immersive installation.

We’re seeking an artist to collaborate with researchers, shaping and responding to this living process through their creative practice. Artists from various disciplines, including installation, music, writing, spoken word, film, light, sound, and visual arts, are encouraged to apply. This is a chance to explore the intersection of art and science, contributing to a groundbreaking piece unveiled during The Late Shows.

We are particularly interested in how an artist(s) will engage with this living process, communicate it, and, of course, ultimately respond with the creation of a new work to be unveiled at The Late Shows. 

Deadline: 10am, Monday 10 March 2025

Full details: https://creativecentralncl.co.uk/opportunities/commission-for-the-late-shows-with-the-coach-house/

The OME’s demountable wall system is being used to test the thermal performance of an experimental wall system, which combines commercially available extruded clay blocks with agricultural waste. The prototype is part of Di Yang’s PhD, which aims to find low-cost solutions to reduce energy demand in housing in rural China, supervised by Prof. Neveen Hamza, Prof. Rose Gilroy and Dr Magdalini Theodoridou.

Healing Masonry has been featured in Material Source’s annual guide to biomaterial and waste-based products!

Healing Masonry introduces a blend of biological self-healing systems into masonry materials, presenting a sustainable alternative to conventional construction. Utilising bacteria for biomineralisation, the project transforms a red lime mortar into a visually engaging medium that shifts colour as it repairs itself and highlights the aesthetic and protective advantages of biomineralisation in building materials.

Online panel discussion: February 11th 13:00 CET. A panel of scientists (including HBBE’s Magdalini Theodoridou) will be inspired by thoughtful questions and fun videos from kids, gathered by The University of Sousse. This promises to be an inspiring forum that celebrates women in science and encourages young minds — especially girls — to dream big in STEM. 

Discipline hopping Simons Foundation Pivot Fellow Evgueni Filipov joins HBBE.

Evgueni Filipov is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For the 2025 calendar year he is a Visiting Fellow in the HBBE and Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape. His visit is sponsored by a prestigious Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship which is designed to give experienced researchers an opportunity to pivot into new fields of study. Evgueni has joined the HBBE to enter the field of mycelium biomaterials, where he is interested in exploring the bonding mechanisms between mycelium hyphae, organic substrates, and knitted scaffolds. He plans to create mechanics-based models to simulate, design and optimize the behavior of biohybrid systems, with the long-term goal of growing low-cost regenerative infrastructure.

The Living Room is a mycelium-knit biohybrid architecture that consists of an exposed knitted formwork on the interior and a smooth mycelium plaster on the exterior, creating a monolithic 4m diameter, freestanding structure. The aim of The Living Room is to develop a complex architectural form with doubly-curved surfaces; exploiting the unique properties of a composite system that brings together flexible, shaped, 3D knitted formwork, with mycocrete, a bespoke mycelium paste formulated for use with textile scaffolds.

Scott, J., Bridgens, B., Kaiser, R., Ozkan, D., & Agraviador, A. (2023). The Living Room: Knitting as a Strategy to Redefine the Architectural Possibilities of Mycelium Biofabrication in the Built Environment. ACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene, Denver.

Bacteria-Driven Form Exploration through Aeration Scaffolding

This research investigates an approach into co-designing with cellulose-producing bacteria to explore its morphogenetic tendencies in order to create intricate 3-dimensional forms. This paper looks at a fabrication approach that diverges from conventional BC material production towards form-finding by creating explorative methods that guide BC formation through the control of airflow. We present an experimental workflow with a bacteria and yeast that employs a strategy to identify parameters for guiding the morphological development of BC.

Hoenerloh, A., Arnardottir, T., Bridgens, B., & Dade-Robertson, M. (2023). Living Morphogenesis: Bacteria-Driven Form Exploration through Aeration ScaffoldingACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene

This paper investigates the design potential of monolithically grown Mycelium-based Composites (MBCs), focusing on integrating 3D knitted formworks within the fabrication process. Mycelium has gained attention as a sustainable, biodegradable construction material with insulating and self-healing capabilities. While there have been advancements in MBC, challenges remain regarding geometrical complexity and design potential at scale through in situ practices. Recent interest has emerged in digital fabrication meth ods and mould creation using textile logic and CNC knitting. However, fabricating mycelium within tubular soft moulds present a lack of stability and uneven growth distribution. The novel technique using injection filling of Mycocrete, a viscous mycelium paste, overcomes this structural disintegration. This method enables the creation of complex designs within a two-staged fabrication process while providing high structural performance. The paper presents three case studies demonstrating the impact of hanging, draping, and internal shape integration as fabrication steps as design tools for geomet rical possibilities and diversity of expressions. It examines the relationship between knitted soft preform design and biofabrication parameters in relation to design expression, scale and mycelium growth. The paper concludes by emphasising the significance of 3D knitted formworks in scaling up MBCs in the built environment and its potential for implementing textile design parameters in MBC expressions and geometries. The fabrication steps provide newfound design opportunities, opening possibilities for aesthetical, material-saving and functionally graded design approaches. Further research in this area holds promise for advancing sustain able construction and textile design practices.

Kaiser, R., Dade-Robertson, M., Elsacker, E., & Scott, J. (2024). Knit-Mycelium Hybrids: Textile Design Strategies for Biofabrication Systems Based on Mycocrete Injection in 3D Knitted Tubular Formworks. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 1–26

https://doi.org/10.1080/20511787.2024.2389613