Mushroom furniture is turning out to be a real growth industry

A new UBC project shows that seating grown from mushrooms could be the future of building materials, reports The Province.

Just outside the UBC bookstore, UBC architecture professor Joe Dahmen and colleagues have recently installed six benches made of sawdust and mushroom spores, topped with clear acrylic sheets.

Dahmen says mushroom roots could eventually replace the polystyrene insulation used in buildings.

“Mycelium biocomposites or this blend of mushroom roots and sawdust has similar thermal resistance to polystyrene foams but with a fraction of the impact because we grow it instead of manufacture it,” Dahmen said.

Similar articles appeared in the Vancouver Sun and Edmonton Journal.