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MYCELIUM Mycelium designed in 3D
Mycologist Paul Stamets once said “I see mycelium as the Earth’s natural Internet”. However, mushroom mycelium has a myriad of other applications. For instance, it can be used to produce packaging and as a natural ‘vacuum cleaner’ to clean polluted soil. But printing a 3D chair made of mycelium?! Designer Eric Klarenbeek did just that.
By Hetty Bruinse
Zaandam, a region famous for the many windmills that powered local industries in days gone by, is home to the studio of Eric Klarenbeek and his partner Maartje Dros. The majority of these windmills have vanished, but Klarenbeek is a firm advocate of local production. Not using windmills, but with 3D-printers and organic raw materials. As a metaphor to emphasize the link between nature and machines, he produced a chair made of mycelium using a 3D-print method. The 3D- printers were largely made by the designer by referen- cing open source instructions on the internet. Parts for the printers were also printed in 3D. The quest to source the right organic material was not an easy one. The ‘Beelden op de Berg’ outdoor exhibi- tion in Wageningen brought Klarenbeek into contact with Anton Sonnenberg and Johan Baars from Wagen- ingen UR, who put him onto the trail of mycelium. Until then, his only acquaintance with mushrooms had been in the woods or in the supermarket. He read Stamets’ book ‘Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World’, the scientists at Wageningen gave him a crash course in the fine art of mycelium cultivation and he transformed his studio into a mycelium produc- tion centre.
Sustainability the red thread So how does someone come up with the idea of creating a chair using mycelium? Klarenbeek has always been captivated by electronics and the way in
The 3D-printer in action producing a part for the original chair. The parts are made of a com- pound of straw, water and mycelium. At this stage it is still brown, but as the mycelium co- lonises the substance it turns white. Photo:
Maartje Dros/Studio Eric Klarenbeek.
which electronic products are integrated into society. A new device will always have to be dismantled and reassembled. This fascination led him to study at the Design Academy in Eindhoven where he graduated in 2003. The theme of sustainability weaves as a red thread through his work. “When a furniture maker crafts a chair, an entire process has already taken place. Years pass before a tree has matured. That tree is felled and via a complicated industrial process that involves huge volumes of waste material and a high transport footprint, the end result is produced. This inspired us to search for materials that can be sourced from the immediate environment, and to use them in 3D-printing technology. We originally intended to use bamboo, but the contact with Wageningen taught us the versatility of mycelium.” The mycelium spawn was supplied by CNC Exotic Mushrooms. A compound of organic straw and myce- lium was combined to create a substance that could be fed into a 3D-printer to build the framework. For stabili- ty, the chair was coated with a 0.5 mm of bioplastic, also printed using 3D technology. The chair was relocated to an actual growing room on a mushroom farm to allow the mycelium to develop further in the inner frame of the chair to fuse the structure together. After a drying process the ultimate result is an extremely lightweight, yet incredibly strong, sculptural construction measu- ring 70 x 70 x 80 cm (see photo on front page). The many clusters of mushrooms gracing the chair were an additional ‘bonus ‘for Klarenbeek, as they were not necessarily vital to the material or the chair as part of the project. This did raise the question of how to dry the chair, and the mushrooms, in the right way. The studio now houses a drying area put together by the designer. An old freezer serves as a ‘spawning area’.
Chair on tour When the chair reached completion at the end of last year, it attracted overwhelming national and internatio- nal attention. It embarked on a grand tour, ranging from the Dutch Design week, Bright Amsterdam, Heim Textil in Germany to Galerie Yksi in Eindhoven. There is also interest from New York for a trade event about 3D-prin- ting. The chair has now been joined by a second piece of furniture, a stool named ‘The Veiled Lady’, after the mushroom of the same name, for an exhibition in Mu-
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