Growing Furniture : Designing a mycelium side table

Abstract: Product development can be taxing for the environment. When it comes to hardware products then a lot ofthe materials generally involved are based on finite resources such as fossil fuels. As the most commonlyused materials are rarely biodegradable, they often end up in landfills where they end up being harmfulboth to the environment and its inhabitants for a very long time. During recent years some companieshave started combating this through getting involved in the development and implementation of moresustainable alternatives. One of these companies trying to implement more sustainable materials isInteresting Times Gang, who now also wishes to develop new products by using mycelium - theunderground network of threads produced by fungi. This as mycelium poses a lot of sustainable propertiessuch as biodegradability, a high degree of moldability as well as being a cultivated resource rather thanbeing synthetic. This project serves to investigate what kind of product types are fitting for myceliumcomposites per request from ITG, as well as what kind of surface treatments are possible and fitting tomake the material more desirable. This with the intention of increasing awareness about the material withthe hopes of promoting it to a larger audience, enabling a transition towards more sustainable materialalternatives in the process. With the information gathered through research the project resulted in a sidetable that was designed and manufactured as a 1:1 scale prototype to showcase the possibilities of thematerial. This was done through a material driven design process which was divided into four steps:Understanding the material, Creating materials experience vision, Manifesting materials experience visionand Designing product concepts. Each phase included its own methods respectively and some of themethods include literature review, material testing, benchmarking, user testing, digital prototyping andmanufacturing to name a few. The project is a master thesis for the Industrial Design Engineeringprogramme at Luleå University of Technology performed during the spring of 2023.