Testing a low-cost, fungi-based building material to combat extreme heat

Residents of informal settlements, colloquially called slums, often lack the resources to adapt to extreme heat. This project seeks to develop and test a novel building material made from mycelium – the root-like network of fungi – grown on bamboo, a fast-growing, widely available material in the tropics. The resulting composite material can be bonded directly to the corrugated tin roofs commonly used in these settlements, providing low-cost insulation. Over a period of two years, the team will test the insulation properties of bamboo-backed mycelium materials in laboratory settings, deploy a prototype roofing structure in Makassar, Indonesia to evaluate its durability in the field, and develop a roadmap for scaling local production.

Above: Fruiting king oyster cultivation. Image credit:  Yarphoto / iStock