Why do scientists believe that “people of the future” should live in giant mushroom houses?

Imagine that you woke up and stood upfeet on the floor, which is completely made from material created on the basis of mushrooms. The ceiling, walls and even plumbing and power supply system are made of the same material. It sounds very strange and unusual, right? But this is exactly how some scientists imagine the houses of the future, who are sure that mushrooms can create a building material that is better than concrete in several ways. For example, such natural material in theory can be self-healing and if the building begins to crumble, it can be repaired simply by filling the damaged area with water and letting the mushrooms grow slightly. But how can scientists achieve the strength of such fragile building blocks?

It is hoped that the houses of the future will not look that way

The idea of ​​an international group of scientists wastold by Futurism, a science publication focusing on future technologies. In a published article, researchers propose starting the development of building materials, the main component of which is live fungal mycelium. Under this term, it is customary to understand the bodies of mushrooms, which consist of many threads with a thickness of not more than 10 micrometers.

How to build a self-healing house?

Scientists want to build mushroom houses becausethe use of such material is less harmful to nature. As you know, to create concrete slabs and other materials popular in construction, destructive mining is carried out and a lot of fossil fuel is required. Mushroom cultivation, in turn, does not harm the environment so much. In addition, according to one of the authors of the study, Han Westen, fungal materials can have a variety of mechanical properties. For example, under certain conditions, they can acquire the properties of foam, and in the presence of additional components can become like a tree.

Mushrooms are composed of mycelium, suitable for creating building material.

To give strength to fungal materials,scientists can cover them with a layer of strengthening substances. They emphasize that people even varnish or paint coat wood, and this is because such a coating protects the material well from destruction. So there’s definitely a point in creating mushroom-based materials. Moreover, they can be restored simply by providing the mushrooms with conditions for growth. Imagine - you accidentally damaged a wall when moving a table from one room to another. Repairmen will not have to call, because it will be possible to repair the wall simply by soaking it with water, waiting for some time to restore it and re-applying the protective layer.

Do you know that a mushroom can also create a source of energy?

It is noteworthy that the idea of ​​creating fungalmany companies caught fire. For example, Terreform One and Planetary One previously created building blocks called Mycoform. In fact, these building blocks grew themselves and, according to researchers, their size has no boundaries. It is known that experimental blocks were created using mushrooms called Ganoderma Lucidum, but at the moment there are no houses made of such material. And the thing is that they still require improvement. Nobody wants the first mushroom house to collapse due to some missed mistake?

If you are interested in the news of science and technology, subscribe to our channel in Yandex. Dzen. There you will find materials that have not been published on the site!

What can I say, the development of mushroomeven NASA space agency is involved in materials. Researchers hope that such building blocks can be created directly on Mars and used to create homes for the first colonizers. In addition, mushrooms may be needed to create medicines. You can read more about this in our special material.