SUSTAINABILITY
MATERIAL WORLD S
BRAVE NEW
Kevin Stanley gives the low down on some of the weird and wonderful sustainable building materials that will shape the future of construction.
tandard building materials such as bricks, blocks, timber and cement haven’t changed for centuries. They are reliable, but they’re never been exciting or especially innovative. But innovators are looking at the biology of mycelium, the chemistry of concrete polymers, and the physics of phase change materials to create new products that insulate, heal themselves, store energy and even glow in the dark.
22 Mycelium Insulation
Myceen has developed a bio-based insulation material grown from natural feedstocks, using mycelium as a natural binder instead of synthetic glues or chemical additives. Once fully formed the material is dried to halt biological activity creating a stable, durable insulation product suitable for use in buildings. “From a building physics perspective, the material is vapour-permeable allowing it to
absorb and release humidity,” explains Siim Karro, co-founder at Myceen. “This contributes to a more stable and comfortable indoor climate and makes it particularly suitable for heritage or protected buildings that can only be insulated from the inside.”
Material density also provides effective thermal buffering, meaning that it performs well in both cold and hot conditions helping to reduce heat loss in winter and overheating
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2026
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