Digital Fabrication of Growth - Combining digital manufacturing of clay with natural growth of mycelium

Abstract

In this paper we will demonstrate that a digital workflow and a living material such as mycelium, make the creation of smart structural designs possible. Ceramics industries are not as technically advanced in terms of digital fabrication, as the concrete or steel industries are. At the same time, bio-based materials that use growth as a manufacturing method, are often lacking in basic research. Our interdisciplinary research combines digital manufacturing - allowing a controlled material distribution, with the use of mycelial growth - enabling fibre connections on a microscopic scale. We developed a structure that uses material informed toolpaths for paste-based extrusion, which are built on the foundation of experiments that compare material properties and observations of growth. In this manner the tensile strength of 3D printed unfired clay elements was increased by using mycelium as an intelligently oriented fibre reinforcement. Assembling clay-mycelium composites in a living state allows force-transmitting connections within the structure. The composite named 'MyCera' has exhibited structural properties that open up the possibility of its implementation in the building industry. In this context it allows the design and efficient manufacturing of lightweight ceramic constructions customized to this composite, which would not have been possible using conventional ceramics fabrication methods.