Jul

Housing Innovations: The Tiny Mushroom House

by Janine Boylan on July 8, 2013

Mushroom tiny house, showing an example of housing innovations

The house that mushrooms built
© Ecovative Design

The Assignment

Last April, Sam Harrington was given an assignment: grow a house.

Mycelium, used to grow the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Mycelium, shown under an electron microscope
© Ecovative Design

Harrington works at Ecovative Design, where they create innovative and environmentally friendly products ranging from packaging to construction materials.

But grow a house?

Yes, like other Ecovative Design products, this house would be built—and grown—with the help of fungus fibers called mycelium.

Ecovative Design has discovered a process that uses mycelium to tightly bond things, like wooden boards, together. They would now apply the process in housing innovations.

The Plan

Harrington decided to build a “tiny house,” a home under 500 square feet. The tiny house movement has been growing in popularity since Sarah Susanka published The Not So Big House in 1995.

Harrington’s tiny house, like many others, would be built on a trailer so it could be moved around easily. It would also have space-saving features like a bed loft.

Harrington learned that the first annual Tiny House Fair would be held in June, 2013, and he was determined to attend with the completed tiny house in tow. So, he had to put his innovative ideas to work quickly!

Building the Frame

Harrington started the mushroom tiny house with a simple four-corner frame that marked the edges of its outer perimeter.

Tiny house frame for the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

The house requires four posts to mark the corners, but no studs.
© Ecovative Design

Then he screwed on two parallel layers of pine tongue-and-groove boards with three-and-a-half inches of air between them. The mycelium, or mushroom mixture, will later fill this space.

There are no supporting studs in the mushroom house. The mycelium bonds the two layers of boards so tightly together that it doesn’t require the additional structural support beyond the corner boards.

Growing the Walls and Ceiling

To fill the wall cavities, Harrington and team packed layer after layer of moist mushroom mix (made from corn stalks and mycelium) into the cavities to serve as insulation.

The Mushroom® Insulation has several advantages. Since there are no studs, it is continuous, preventing colder spots in the walls that occur when standard insulation is fitted around studs. Also, the mushroom mixture even grows around and seals the electrical outlets, which are notorious for leaking cold air in tradtional construction.

Filling the walls of the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

Harrington and team fill the walls with the mycelium mixture.
© Ecovative Design

Each layer of Mushroom® Insulation grew for about three days and turned mycelium-white. That’s when Harrington knew that the mix was tightly fused to the pine boards.

Mycelium growing inside the walls of the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

How does your mycelium grow?
© Ecovative Design

Does the house ever stop growing? Harrington explains, “The Mushroom® Insulation slowly dries through the pine boards, so it is important not to make a structure out of plastic! The fungus eventually runs out of moisture and stops growing. But if you have a roof leak in the house, a mushroom might grow there to indicate the leak.”

(Oh, I see an added benefit of Mushroom® Insulation—surprise home-grown mushrooms!)

Mushroom ceiling tiles in the mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

A tiny window in the wall shows the Mushroom® Insulation.
Ceiling tiles are made of the same material.
© Ecovative Design

The team also used their mushroom technology in the ceiling tiles. Harrington reports that the tiles have excellent acoustic properties. Plus, the mycelium material is highly fire retardant.

Future Innovations

Eventually, the team also hopes to use the mycelium to grow furniture. They have plans to create engineered-wood-type products that could be put together.

But that’s in the future. This year, they finished just in time to get to the Tiny House Fair and show the world their housing innovations.

Oh, I see—with innovative ideas, even growing a home is possible!

Mushroom tiny house, an example of housing innovations

The first tour of the tiny house
© Ecovative Design

In this video, Harrington and Ecovative CEO Eben Bayer explain their mushroom technology and the mushroom tiny house project.

Watch this video from Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, host of HGTV’s “Extreme Small Space,” to take a tour of the mushroom tiny house.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 2 Comments

Innovations/The World's Entrepreneurs

Jul

American Freedoms at Your Dinner Table

by Sheron Long on July 4, 2013

Fourth of July dinner table, a good place to discuss American freedoms and gain perspective

Eat a little, talk a little this Fourth of July
© Thinkstock/iStockphoto

Gain Perspective, Not Weight, on the Fourth of July

Today, the Fourth of July, OIC Moments sends insights to share when your dinner table conversation turns to American freedoms.

There’s sure to be dissent—One guest speaks; not everyone agrees. Could it be, as Lady Bird Johnson said, “The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom”?

Hoping you will gain perspective from the raucous sounds of freedom around your table, we offer three questions and some conversation starters. Try them out and see where the conversation goes.

1. What Does Freedom Feel Like?

Conversation starters:

The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So, if I can’t have those things, then I feel like a caged animal and I’d rather not be in a cage. I’d rather be dead. And it’s real simple. And I think it’s not that uncommon.

—Angelina Jolie (1975– ), actress and humanitarian

Woman dancing freely, illustrating the joy of American freedoms

Ah, the feeling of freedom!
© Thinkstock/iStockphoto

Freedom is control in your own life.

—Willie Nelson (1933– ), country music singer-songwriter

Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.

—Alan Dean Foster (1946– ), writer best known for works in science fiction and fantasy

You have freedom when you’re easy in your harness.

—Robert Frost (1874–1963), poet

Harness? That sounds like freedom might come with limitations and that leads us right to the next question.

2. Where Are the Limits of Freedom?

Conversation starters:

Many people don’t understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz . . . . And that is really the idea of democracy—freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don’t just get out there and do anything you want.

—Dave Brubeck (1920–2012), jazz pianist and composer

I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.

— Michael Bloomberg (1942– ), businessman, philanthropist, and mayor of NYC for three terms beginning in 2002

One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain’t.

—Lyn Nofziger (1924–2006), journalist and White House adviser to President Ronald Reagan

The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.

—Madeleine Albright (1937– ), diplomat and Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration

Different Americans pledge allegiance to the US flag in honor of the American freedoms celebrated on the Fourth of July

3. What Does Freedom Cost? How Do We Pay it Forward?

John Quincy Adams, US President from 1825–1829 and son of the second President of the US John Adams, had this message for the generations that followed him: “Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”

The American generations that followed discovered that they, too, had to preserve freedom with continuing vigilance through wars abroad and social change at home.

Patriotic sign, helping people gain perspective on what it takes to preserve American freedoms

Consider the perspectives of these American voices as you think now about what you and your generation can do to keep freedom alive.

Conversation starters:

Freedom is a muscle . . . you have to exercise it.

—Roy Scheider (1932–2008), actor, choreographer, and film director

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set.

—Adlai E. Stevenson (1900–1965), politician, governor of Illinois, and Ambassador to the United Nations

Freedom isn’t free. It shouldn’t be a bragging point that ‘Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,’ as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.

—Bill Maher (1956– ), comedian, TV host, and political commentator

So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.

—Molly Ivins (1944–2007), journalist, humorist, and political commentator

Your “Oh, I See” Moment?

Listen to the voices of freedom ringing around your dinner table. Did any one of them make you say, “Oh, I see” today? Leave a comment and let us know your insight.

Handprint with US flag motif, illustrating how each American leaves a mark on the American freedoms celebrated on the Fourth of July

All quotes from Brainy Quote.

For a perspective on American freedoms through an immigrant’s eyes, see this interview with William Holston of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas.

Sheron Long 2 Comments

Quotes of Note/USA

Jul

Find Creative Inspiration and Invent the Unknown

by Meredith Mullins on July 1, 2013

Forest firepPainting shows creative inspiration from Donald Sultan

A Test of Creativity

What do photographer Michael Kenna, writer Mary Pope Osborne, visual artist Donald Sultan, and entrepreneur Elon Musk have in common?

A. Curiosity
B. Dogged Drive
C. Risk-Taking Genes
D. Penchant for Hard Work

Meredith Mullins 6 Comments

Literary World/The World's Art & Design/The World's Entrepreneurs

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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Housing Innovations: The Tiny Mushroom House

The Assignment

The Plan

Building the Frame

Growing the Walls and Ceiling

Future Innovations

American Freedoms at Your Dinner Table

Gain Perspective, Not Weight, on the Fourth of July

1. What Does Freedom Feel Like?

2. Where Are the Limits of Freedom?

3. What Does Freedom Cost? How Do We Pay it Forward?

Your “Oh, I See” Moment?

Find Creative Inspiration and Invent the Unknown

A Test of Creativity