Life communications
Dr Jane Scott is a Newcastle University Academic who leads The Living Textiles Research Group, part of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE). Her research bridges programmable materials, knitted fabric design, architecture and biology exploring how textiles can play a crucial role in creating sustainable and eco-friendly building methods.
When we look to nature for research inspiration, we are accessing 3.8 billion years’ worth of evolutionary trial and error!
In the Living Textiles Research Group, our focus is on how nature can help to develop new sustainable materials for construction.
The HBBE is a pioneering research collaboration between Northumbria University and Newcastle University. As an interdisciplinary team of scientists, designers, architects and engineers, we are unique in the way that we approach our research, which has been recognised internationally.
Part of our research is exploring how to grow materials from fungus, sawdust and wool, that could one day replace concrete, which continues to spark a lot of curiosity in academia, industry and with the public.
Mycelium is the root-like structure of a fungus. It is an amazing microorganism that forms a network which grows and extends into branching structures that absorb nutrients from the environment. Through this process, mycelium has an incredible ability to bind together cellulose-based substrates, such as sawdust or paper fibres, and this process can be used to produce durable, lightweight composite materials.
We use knitted textiles as moulds and a 3D formwork to shape and support the composite as the mycelium grows. We have found that mycelium interacts with the textile, growing through the knitted structures and binding to the yarns. Our work has demonstrated that composites formed from both mycelium and knitted textiles are stronger than other standard mycelium composites.
This form of biofabrication, which allows us to grow mycelium and textile composite materials at ambient temperatures, enables us to rethink a lot of the conventional construction processes; to produce locally on site, to reduce transportation associated with shipping individual parts for assembly, and to develop sustainable practices.
Alongside technical material developments we also want to explore what architecture of the future – that has been grown rather than constructed – might look like, and what it could feel like to live in a biofabricated building.
Here the combination of 3D knitting, wool and mycelium is critical as these components create a distinctive aesthetic, as well as unique acoustic environments with amazing thermal insulating properties. At the moment we are growing three-metre-high structures for public exhibitions so that we can understand how people respond to the experience of these new environments.
It is fantastic that Life’s Science Now! Hub is throwing the spotlight on the incredible research happening locally. The focus of the installation – learning from nature and understanding how to design successfully with biological systems – is incredibly important as we develop sustainable future materials. We are so fortunate to have the expertise locally to address some of the biggest environmental challenges and work together towards the green transition.
In the next few years, the Living Textiles Research Group aims to develop modular mycelium textile systems at a building scale. Whilst there is a lot of further development required, the work we are undertaking at scale illustrates the potential of this incredible combination of textiles and mycelium.
So, who knows, maybe Newcastle will have the first fungi home of the future!
