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Mycelia House 01

Care for, grow and display mushrooms in your home.

  • Mycelia House is a functional container that showcases the beauty of mushrooms and supports their growth within the home.

    This home cultivation system presents the ideal growth environment for mushrooms to thrive indoors - allowing for fresh air exchange, retaining humidity, applied water and natural/low light.

    The design is inspired by the cardboard box kits and the bucket growth method, where plastic bags / buckets are poked with holes and filled with growth substrate for growing mushrooms.

  • Mycelia Houses aims to connect us with our innate nature - our human nature, through the display, caring for and nourishment of mushrooms as a living entity and as a food source.

    As naturalist Erin Verinder puts it “we are waking up from a long slumber of disconnectedness. Remembering that we are made up of the same materials as nature. There is simply no seperation.”.

  • Inner form - 3D printed terracotta ceramic pot

    Self watering lid - terracotta ceramic slip cast

    Outer form - handblown glass dish and casing.

  • We live in a globalized world that has evolved to living in urban areas. Technology is advancing rapidly and with this we are desiring products we can connect with and emotionally relate to. The Covid 19 pandemic has had a ripple effect into the way we live and work, spending more time at home, as well as we are noticing and craving a deeper relationship with ourselves, the natural world and our daily routine. With trends arising in the localisation of food production and DIY alternatives, as well as a love for houseplants, the concept for mycelia houses has manifested. When we localise food, this leads to more sustainable and diverse food systems.

The Journey

This project started as my 2020 Industrial Design Honours Project whilst studying at the University of New South Wales.

The initial intention for this project wasn't to design a pot to grow mushrooms —it was to explore the applications of mycelium as a material within design.

In researching, I found many had negative associations towards fungi - often referred to as "gross, poisonous and infectious". These stories stem from generations of fear and a lack of knowledge about fungi. This presented a problem—

If I was to design a product using mycelium as the material, would it even be adopted by society?

Mycelia House is as much about changing the societal perceptions of fungi as it is about creating a functional, beautiful & simple product.

Fungi is beautiful. When we display them within our homes we watch them grow, we connect & we can attune ourselves to a more natural rhythm of life - one that is more sustainable.

—Caity Duffus, Designer

  • Paul Stamets is the Steve Jobs of Mycology, and I was deeply inspired by his TED Talk ‘How mushrooms can save the world’ where he goes into detail of all the potential uses for fungi and the essential role they play in our ecosystem. We have a lot to learn about the diversity of the fungi kingdom, only knowing 3% of fungi species. They are the hearts of our forests, connecting trees in a symbiotic relationship and holding all soils together. It is the largest living organism on our planet. We have a lot to learn from fungi.

    Fungi offers many potential applications for sustainable futures - as a material (furniture, packaging, clothing), food source (to nourish), medicinal (eg reishi for anxiety & lions mane to strengthen neural pathways), acknowledging ancient cultures & their wisdom, and an ability to break down waste (in landfills and toxins in our waterways).

Images sourced via pinterest.

As seen on design boom, dezeen, UNSW Luminocity Exhibition, Green Magazine issue 13, HIŠE magazine, and the 2020 IDES X Re-connect Exhibition.

UNSW Luminocity Exhibition, Industrial Design