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charon [soylentnews.org] writes:

First, designers debuted leather made from mushrooms [popsci.com]. Now you can sit on furniture made from fungi, too. At first glance, the sturdy white stools and beautiful accent tables look like any other piece of furniture, perhaps crafted from wood or marble. But they are far from ordinary. They are made entirely from ingredients much simpler and squishier than you'd think: the mycelium "roots" of mushrooms, agriculture waste, and microorganisms.

The chic new furniture line – a collaboration between Ecovative and bioMASON, two companies that specialize in making sustainable alternatives for consumer goods using a process called biofabrication – was unveiled recently at Biofabricate 2016 [biofabricate.co]. "What we do that is unique is that we use biological organisms to literally grow our product," says Eben Bayer, CEO of Ecovative [ecovativedesign.com]. "In most cases, like when you brew beer, the organism you use is thrown away at the end. But the organism is the most beautiful part. And it is part of our furniture."

The microscopic, thread-like tissue that makes up a mushroom—known as mycelium [mushroomshack.com]—is used to make the base of the stools and the table legs. Because mycelium naturally latches onto different substances to help mushrooms grow and form colonies, it can be coaxed into shape around a scaffolding of woodchips or hemp fibers, binding all of these components together as it grows.

Source: http://www.popsci.com/furniture-made-from-mushrooms-could-be-in-your-future [popsci.com]

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