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

Find Creative Inspiration and Invent the Unknown

by Meredith Mullins on July 1, 2013

Forest firepPainting shows creative inspiration from Donald Sultan

Forest Fire Jan 5 1984
© 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

Jun

Clever Ideas and Happy Accidents Reinvent the Wheel

by Janine Boylan on June 24, 2013

David Patrick whose clever ideas created Shark Wheels

David Patrick
© 4sphere

How Do Shark Wheels Roll?

Shark Wheel vs old wheels, showing the result of clever ideas

David Patrick had a clever idea: he added a twist to the world’s most perfect invention, the wheel.

And he has patented and hopes to begin creating these twisty wheels for skateboards.

Patrick designed a wheel that looks square from its side, has snake-like curves, but goes faster and smoother than a standard wheel.

In his Kickstarter video, Patrick explains, “The inspiration for this wheel came from a cube…I had figured out how to take six simple shapes and assemble them in such a way that it formed a perfect cube.”

He continues, “The helix shape of it was perfectly balanced so no matter what the terrain, it kept on going.” And it was fast.

Just how does a wavy cube-inspired wheel work? The wheel has a broader contact patch, illustrated by its snake-like tread, or sine pattern. This wider contact means that it won’t dig into soft ground like a traditional wheel will.

an explanation of the Shark Wheel design, showing clever ideas

It also means the wheel performs well: the Shark Wheel prototypes are fast, smooth, and have great grip control.

(Happy) Accidents Will Happen

Patrick had no intention of creating skateboard wheels. In fact, about ten years ago, he owned a software company.

He was working closely with a designer to construct computer drawings of 3D models, when he paused. He recognized that one of their artistic designs, if it was real, would spin.

They had accidentally created a new shape. This was his first Oh, I see moment.

Soon Patrick sold his software company in order to focus on developing the shape into a machine.

A bit later, as Patrick was working on his project, a coworker noticed, “That looks like a propeller. What happens when you blow air on it?”

What happened was: it spun, it was quiet, and it ran quickly. In fact it got up to 50 thousand rpms, considerably faster than other turbines.

Oh, I see moment number two.

It was a good design; it worked well; and it was actually smaller, more attractive, and more efficient than blade turbines.

Then one day, using the same shape over and over, Patrick explains, “It fell on the floor and rolled. Suddenly we had a wheel.”

Oh, I see moment three.

Patrick reflects, “I accidentally invented a machine; from that came a propeller; from that came a wheel. I accidentally fell into all of this.”

Shark Wheels on board, showing the results of clever ideas

Why a Skateboard Wheel?

Patrick is a skateboarder and knew that his wheel would work perfectly in that market. So that’s where he plans to start.

Shark Wheel bike, showing the result of clever ideas

But he’s not stopping there. He envisions companies using his wheel design in many more everyday things like rolling luggage, grocery carts, strollers—anything that, as he says, “when you hit something soft, the thing endos.” He even sees it as a future solution for cars.

“But not bicycles,” he laughs. He created a bicycle-version of the wheel with a frame modified to fit it, but, Patrick says, the design works only on the back wheel. The front wheel requires a double helix. (Oh, I see. Of course.)

And, as if wheels aren’t enough, Patrick hopes to produce wind and water versions of his turbines as he develops his wheels. In fact, he is three months into dynamic tests on a wind-version of the turbine, and Patrick hopes to move into water versions soon.

But Where Did the Name Come From?

Just compare the wheel shape to an actual shark’s jaw.

Shark Jaws and Shark Wheels, illustrating creative ideas

Plus I think Patrick is planning to use his clever ideas to take a huge bite out of the wheel industry!