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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.

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

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

© 4sphere

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.”

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